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Ancient Near East Inscriptions



Pictographic Hebrew

Pictographic Hebrew Inscription

This inscription found in southern Israel is an example of pictographic Hebrew dated around 1700 BCE. Each letter is a picture such as the "lamed" which can clearly be seen as a "hooked shepherd's staff" (bottom row, second from the right). Notice the similarity of this letter to our letter "L" which came from this letter.

At the top left hand corner is a "mem", depicted as zig-zag lines and is a picture of water. Also notice the similarity of this letter to our "M" which comes from this ancient letter.




Hebrew

Hebrew Inscription

This Hebrew inscription is on a piece of pottery found in Israel and dated between 500 and 700 BCE. The text is a simplified form of the ancient pictographic Hebrew script. When Israel went into Babylonian captiviy, they adopted the square Aramaic script (also an evolved form of the ancient pictographic Hebrew script) for writing. Much of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in this Aramaic script. The inscription reads "Shema" meaning "to hear and obey or take action". Devariym (Deut) 4:6 begins with this word "Shema Yisrael YHWH eloheynu YHWH echad" (Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One). The letters for this word, from right to left, are a shin, mem, and ayin.



Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew

Ancient Hebrew Inscription

This inscription is from a Hebrew manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls written around 200 BCE. The Hebrew language is related to many other languages around Canaan and Mesopotamia including; Aramaic, Phonecian, Ugarit, Akkadian and others.

The original script for the Hebrew language is the ancient pictographic Hebrew script (also called paleo-hebrew). The script used by the Hebrews from 400 BCE to today is actually an Aramaic script (which was also derived from the Proto-Siniatic script). The Aramaic language is a sister language to Hebrew and was used by the Babylonians in the Mesopotamia area. When the Hebrews were taken into captivity in Babylon, they found the Aramaic script easier to write and adopted it for their own language.

The "lamed" (top row, sixth letter from the right) still resembles the same letter of the ancient pictographic Hebrew script which it evolved from.



Moabite

Moabite

This inscription, found in Moab (right of Israel) is dated at about 900 BCE. These letters are a direct descendent of the Proto-Siniatic letters used much earlier.

For example the "lamed" (top row, fifth letter from the right) has remained to same since the ancient pictographic Hebrew script.

The language of this inscription is Moabite which is a sister language to Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugarit, Akkadian and others. The script used by the Moabites is the same script used by Moabites sister languages. This is similar to Italian, Spanish and English. All three are sister languages, but all three use the same Latin Alphabet.



Ugarit

Ugarit Inscription

The language of this tablet is Ugarit which is very similar to the Hebrew language. Since the discovery of these tablets and the Ugarit language in 1928, some Hebrew words found in the Bible whose meanings were previously unknown have been translated.

The script used for this language is an alphabetic cuneiform (Latin for wedge shaped). Unlike the Sumerian Cuneiform which has hundreds of symbols with each representing a syllable, there are only thirty symbols with each representing a sound making it a cuneiform alphabet.

The Ugarit alphabet first appears around 1400 BCE on clay tablets such as the one to the left.



Pictographic Sumerian

Ancient Hebrew Inscription

The Sumerian people appeared in the Mesopotamia area around 3000 BCE with a fully developed pictographic script. Around 2500 BCE the pictographic script was replaced by the cuneiform script.

The pictograph, in the upper portion of the left side, with a circle and a plus sign in the middle is identical to the Hebrew pictograph "tet" and the Egyptian pictograph "nwt".



Cuneiform

Sumerian Cuneiform Inscription

The original pictographic Proto-Sumerian script of Sumeria evolved into the cuneiform (Latin for wedge shaped) script, where the picture is represented by various wedge shaped symbols, around 2500 BCE.

The Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadians (a Semitic people whose language was similar to Hebrew) around 2100 BCE. The Akkadian's and other Semitic people adopted the cuneiform script for their languages.



Pictographic Egyptian

Pictographic Egyptian Inscription

The Egyptian hieroglyphs (Latin for holy writings) appeared fully developed in Egypt around 3000 BCE. These hieroglyphs are very similar to the Proto-Sumerian script and the ancient pictographic Hebrew script.



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