The%20Ancient%20Near%20east:%20Phoenicians%20and%20Hebrews.

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The Ancient Near eastPhoenicians and Hebrews.
Kilamuwa inscription (830-820 B.C.E.).
Phoenician language and alphabet.
Moses is given the Ten Commandments by God. 
Gustave Doré (1832-1883).
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A- WRITING FROM HIEROGLYPHS AND CUNEIFORM SCRIPT
TO THE ALPHABET
Egyptian hieroglyph c. 3000 B.C.E.
Proto-sinaitic script c. 1500 B.C.E.
Cuneiform script Ugaritic alphabet
Phoenician alphabet c. 1800 BCE c. 1300
BCE c. 1000BCE
Sign representing the Sound b in the
Phoenician Alphabet around 1000 B.C.E.
Pictogram of a house used as a phonogram. It
represents the first sound of the word beit
meaning house in Phoenician.
Pictogram of a house
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1.THE EVOLUTION OF THE CUNEIFORM SCRIPT

• By the middle of the 3rd millenium, the Sumerian
  scribes began to use the signs as a mean to
  represent a sound. Thus the sign, representing an
  object or an idea became a PHONOGRAM representing
  a sound.
• Ex.

Sign representing the mouth , pronounced KA
in Sumerian.
Before 2500 BCE
After 2500 BCE
To be read as the mouth
To be read as the sound KA

• CONSEQUENCES The scribes have been able to
  reduce the signs used in the Sumerian language
  from 900 to approximatively 500.

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2.THE USE OF CUNEIFORM BY THE DIFFERENT PEOPLE OF
THE NEAR EAST

• The cuneiform script was commonly used by most
  of the populations of the Ancient Near East.
• These populations usually adapted the script to
  their language.
• The Ugaritic alphabet (around 1300 B.C.E.)is a
  good exemple of the adaptation of cuneiform to
  the language of a people living in a coastal city
  of northern Syria.
• It might also represents the first known
  ALPHABET.

Alphabet used in Ugarit, a coastal city of
northern Syria, and developped Around the 14th
century BCE.
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3. THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET

• The phoenician alphabet does seem to have been
  inspired by different writing systems comprising
  the proto-sinaitic script.
• Used by Semitic people living in Egypt and based
  on Egyptian hieroglyphs but speaking a semitic
  language.
• The proto-sinaitic script used about 30 signs,
  each sign must have represented a sound (too few
  characters available for a pictographic or
  ideographic system).

• The PHOENICIAN alphabet emerged in the middle of
  the 11th c. B.C.E. (in Northern Syria)
• The Phoenicians used 22 signs to write their
  language, read from right to left.
• The Phoenician alphabet was adopted and adapted
  by the Greeks around the 9th c. B.C.E., as a
  result of the intense trade between Tyr, sidon,
  Byblos and Greece.

Cadmos transmitting the alphabet to the
Greeks. Tyr (Phénicie), sous Philippe 1er
lArabe, 244-249 après J.-C.Paris, BnF,
département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques
Source http//classes.bnf.fr/dossiecr/index.htm
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The Phoenician Alphabet
Origins of Phoenician alphabet Phoenician
alphabet Alphabets derived from the phoenician
alpahabet
Sources http//classes.bnf.fr/dossiecr/index.htm
http//www.ancientscripts.com/ http//aleph2at.fre
e.fr/
Comparison between proto-sinaitic, phoenicain and
Greek scripts.
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• CONSEQUENCES
• Writing did not require a long training and
  became easier to learn.
• The scribes progressively lost their eminent
  position in society.
• The alphabet promoted a wider use of writing in
  all sorts of activities (trade, politics,
  religion, etc.)
• The Phoenician alphabet made the transcription
  of numerous languages relatively easy.

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B- THE HEBREWS AND MONOTHEISM (1500 900 B.C.E.)
1. Origins

• Hebrews were part of a larger group of Semitic
  tribes.
• Some were sedentary and developed powerful
  kingdoms (Sargons Akkadians, Hammurabis
  Amorites) but most were semi-nomads living as
  traders or sheperds, under the authority of
  elders males, the patriarchs.
• In brief
• -Location from Mesopotamia to the Levant (modern
  Syria, Lebanon, Israel
• Palestine) after 2000 B.C.E.
• -Lifestyle semi-nomads (breeding goats, sheep),
  hostile to urban lifestyle
• -Society organized in clans lead by elder males
  called patriarchs. Free males
• dominated other clan members (women, children)
  and slaves
• -Religion some adopted the highest god of the
  Canaanites, EL , as their own
• personal god. They were NOT monotheists.

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2.
3.
1.
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2. The Nation of Israel

• Some Hebrew clans migrated and settled in Egypt.
• Their living conditions worsened (according to
  the Bible) resulting into a migration OUT of
  Egypt the EXODUS.
• Lead by a mythic figure, MOSES, the Hebrews fled
  Egypt in the 13th c. B.C.E. and settled in Canaan.

Tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan Egypt,
(1991-1783 BCE) Depiction of Semitic tribes
migrating into Egypt.

• Moses, is considered as the founder of the
  Nation of Israel, united by the faith in a new
  deity borrowed from the Midianites (Sinaï),
  YAHWEH (identified with Abrahams EL).
• The Exodus is a symbol of the agreement or
  covenant with Yahweh
• - the Hebrews became yahwehs chosen people
• - the Hebrews owed a strict observe of yahwehs
  laws.
• The Hebrews were NOT monotheistic yet.

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2. The Nation of Israel

• The religion of Moses or Hebrew monolatry
• -Yahweh created the universe and is transcendant
• (above nature, not part of it),
• - Yahweh is good (he cares for his creation),
• - Yahweh is one, that is the only God of the
• Hebrews,

- Yahweh gives his creation the power to choose
between good or evil, - However, God set the
moral or ethical code (what is right/what is
wrong), - God made of the Hebrews is
chosen people as a result of the covenant, -
The Hebrews must observe more rules (dietary
restrictions, rituals) and set an example
for the rest of humanity.
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3. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah
Map of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah

• At first loosly organized, the Hebrews felt the
  need to unite under a king
• SAUL (1024?-1000? B.C.E.)
• David (ca 1000-962 BCE) and SOLOMON (ca 961-922
  BCE) made of Israel a powerful kingdom with its
  capital at Jerusalem and its Temple in which were
  kept the commandements given by God to Moses.
• Ruling like any Middle eastern king, Solomons
  became more tyrannical and distant with Moses
  religion.
• Protest grew in the form of the PROPHETS, in the
  8th century BCE, religious leaders calling to a
  return to the terms of the covenant with Yahweh.
  They moved the religion from the Temple and the
  rituals to the individual and his actions.

Sourcehttp//www.stratfor.com/
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4. The Exile

• After the destruction of the Hebrews kingdoms
  (Israel in 722 BCE and Judah in 587 BCE) and the
  Temple of Jerusalem, Hebrews were forced to live
  in exile.
• Hebrew religion changed tremendously during this
  episode
• - Study of the sacred scriptures (Torah)
  replaced Temple worship.
• - Hebrews adopted a more monotheistic view of
  religion.
• -The belief in the arrival of a Messiah or
  messenger of God to deliver
• the world from evil, also developed at this
  time.
• The Persian king Cyrus put an end to the Hebrews
  exile and allowed them to return to Jerusalem and
  build a second Temple.

• The religious life of the Hebrews will then be
  characterized by the opposition of the Pharisees
  (emphasis on the study of the Torah, belief in
  resurrection, angels, devils) and the Sadducees
  opposed to these changes.

Representation of the Temple of Solomon
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CONCLUSION The Hebrews greatly shaped the
future of the Western world through their
religion. Their belief in a God, one, good and
transcendant and the emphasis on a personal
relationship between God and each man did
influence what would be the dominant religious
conceptions of the West for the centuries to come.