Proto-Canaanite is the name given to: # The

Proto-Sinaitic script The Proto-Sinaitic script is a Middle Bronze Age writing system known from a small corpus of about Serabit el-Khadim proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, 30-40 inscriptions and fragments from Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as Wadi el ...

when found in

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

, dating to about the 17th century BC and later. # A hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BC, with an undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic. No extant "Phoenician" inscription is older than 1000 BC. The Phoenician,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before that time. About 20–25 Proto-Canaanite inscriptions are known.

Name

''Proto-Canaanite'', also referred to as Proto-Canaan, Old Canaanite, or Canaanite, is the name given to either a script ancestral to the Phoenician or

Paleo-Hebrew script The Paleo-Hebrew script (), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms o ...

with undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic, or to the Proto-Sinaitic script (), when found in Canaan. While no extant inscription in the Phoenician alphabet is older than c. 1050 BC, Proto-Canaanite is used for the early alphabets as used during the 13th and 12th centuries BC in

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

.John F. Healey, ''The Early Alphabet'' University of California Press, 1990, , p. 18. However, the Phoenician,

, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before the 11th century BC, and the writing system is essentially identical..

History and development

According to Finkelstein and Sass (2013), based on archeological contexts of inscriptions, the Proto-Canaanite alphabet spread and developed as follows. From the 13th to the mid-10th century BCE, the spread of the alphabet was restricted to the

Shephelah The Shephelah () or Shfela (), or the Judaean Foothills (), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Jud ...

. From the mid-10th to early 9th century BCE, the alphabet transitioned from Proto-Canaanite to ‘post Proto-Canaanite’. The alphabet also spread out of Philistia to the Beit She'an Valley and

, but there still were not any recognizable regional variants. Between 880 and 830 BCE, the last Proto-Canaanite features disappear from the alphabet. A Hebrew variant of the alphabet can now be differentiated from a still uniform Philistian–Phoenician–Aramaic alphabet. Around 780-730 B.C.E., the "post Proto-Canaanite alphabet" has spread to the entire Levant. The Philistian, Phoenician,

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

and Ammonite variants of the alphabet have emerged. Furthermore, it is stated that because the Proto-Canaanite alphabet can only be found in Shephelah between the 13th century to the mid-10th century BCE, this region is to be regarded as the core area of the alphabet. The alphabet is not attested in

Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...

and in the rest of Phoenicia before the late 10th century BCE. In 2022, an inscription in Proto-Canaanite alphabet found on a comb from 1700 BCE was deciphered. The Canaanite ivory comb was excavated in 2016 in Tel Lachish, an ancient Canaanite site located in the Shephelah. The comb contains multiple letters that are very similar to the letters of the

Inscriptions

A possible example of Proto-Canaanite, the inscription on the Ophel pithos, was found in 2012 on a pottery storage jar during the excavations of the south wall of the Temple Mount by Israeli archaeologist

Eilat Mazar Eilat Mazar (; 10 September 195625 May 2021) was an Israeli archaeologist. She specialized in Jerusalem and Phoenician archaeology. She was also a key person in Biblical archaeology noted for her discovery of the Large Stone Structure, which ...

in Jerusalem. Inscribed on the pot are some big letters about an inch high, of which only five are complete, and traces of perhaps three additional letters written in Proto-Canaanite script. Another possible Proto-Canaanite inscription is the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon, a 15-by-16.5-centimetre (5.9 in × 6.5 in)

ostracon An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...

believed to be the longest Proto-Canaanite inscription ever found. Other inscriptions include the Lachish Dagger, Gezer Sherd, Schechem Plaque, Nagila Sherd, Izbet Sartah Ostracon, Raddana Handle, Revadim Seal, El-Khadr Arrowheads 1-5, and the Ahiram Sarcophagus.

Table of symbols

References

External links