Deciphering the proto-Sinaitic script: making sense of the Wadi el-Hol and Serabit el-Khadim early alphabetic inscriptions
"From its initial appearance, in around the 18th century BC, the origins of proto-Sinaitic writing can be traced back to Egypt's Middle Kingdom period, when it was somehow derived from the hieroglyphs, its parent-system. The importance of proto-Sinaitic lies in the fact that it represents...
| Riepilogo: | "From its initial appearance, in around the 18th century BC, the origins of proto-Sinaitic writing can be traced back to Egypt's Middle Kingdom period, when it was somehow derived from the hieroglyphs, its parent-system. The importance of proto-Sinaitic lies in the fact that it represents the alphabet's earliest developmental period--a kind of 'missing link' between the hieroglyphs and these early Semitic alphabets from which our own Latin one descends, by way of the Phoenician and Greek. Although up until now, proto-Sinaitic has remained for the most part undeciphered. The intriguing possibility of giving voice to a lost culture or civilization from thousands of years ago is tantalizing. Representing one of the most enticing problems in modern archaeology, the enigmatic allure surrounding ancient languages and their undeciphered scripts in which they are encoded is truly vexing. With Deciphering the Proto-Sinaitic Script, LeBlanc argues convincingly to have solved the mystery. In this bold and brave undertaking, the author examines the history of proto-Sinaitic writing, contextualizes its emergence, and demonstrates the validity of his findings. But just as importantly, in addition to providing us with an indispensable insight into the origins of the alphabet, it appears that in having arguably deciphered the script, LeBlanc has uncovered some incredibly enthralling information about the people who invented it. The epigraphic evidence suggests that the Amu, those Egyptianized Canaanites who first devised the 'mother of all alphabets,' would bring their proto-Sinaitic writing system back with them as they eventually returned to neighbouring Canaan, their original homeland. There, proto-Sinaitic would evidently survive as, over time, it developed into the early Semitic alphabets. But apparently, so did the Amu folk-memory live on as well. For as it just so happens, one of the deciphered inscriptions provides LeBlanc with an incredible 'lead' to follow, as far as helping him prove that the Amu were surprisingly instrumental in the formation of early Israelite culture and proto-Judaism."-- |
|---|---|
| Descrizione del documento: | Includes bibliographical references |
| Descrizione fisica: | 372 Seiten, illustrations, maps, 23 cm |
| ISBN: | 978-0-9952844-0-1 0-9952844-0-7 |