Runes and the Origins of Writing
Page 17
[←246 ]
Ibid., p. 157.
[←247 ]
Herodotus, Histories, V, 57–59. On the abduction of Europa, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 839 ff. The Greek legend states that Agenor was the son of Poseidon, that he settled down in Phoenicia and had three sons: Phoenix, who stayed in Phoenicia, Cilix, who conquered the southern coast of Anatolia, and Cadmus, who settled down in Greece.
[←248 ]
Diodorus Siculus, III, 67 and V, 74. See also Marcel Detienne, L’écriture d’Orphée, Gallimard, Paris 1989, pp. 101–115.
[←249 ]
See Verein zur Förderung der Aufarbeitung der Hellenischen Geschichte e.V. (ed.), Die Geschichte der hellenischen Sprache und Schrift, vom 2. zum 1. Jahrtausend v.Chr.: Bruch oder Kontinuität?, Kultur und Wissenchaft, Altenburg 1998, notamment les communications de Rudolf Wachter (“Die Übernahme des Alphabets durch die Griechen: wie, wann, wo, durch wen und wozu? Eine aktuelle Abwägung der Standpunkte, Argumente und methodischen Ansätze,” pp. 345–353) and Wolfgang Röllig (“Das Alphabet und sein Weg zu den Griechen,” pp. 359–384).
[←250 ]
Rhys Carpenter, “The Antiquity of the Greek Alphabet,” in American Journal of Archaeology, 1933, pp. 8–29.
[←251 ]
Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo, “La transmission de l’alphabet phénicien aux Grecs,” in Rina Viers (ed.), Des signes pictographiques à l’alphabet. La communication écrite en Méditerranée, Karthala, Paris 2000, p. 235.
[←252 ]
John F. Healey, Les débuts de l’alphabet, 2nd ed., Seuil, Paris 2005, p. 61.
[←253 ]
Margherita Guarducci, Epigrafia greca, Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, Roma 1967.
[←254 ]
Berthold Louis Ullmann, Ancient Writing and its Influence, Longmans Green & Co., New York 1932. “One can’t help but put side by side the adoption of Phoenician writing at the time and the fact that the Dorian invasion seems to have been at least partially by sea. The Dorians went from the south to the north in the Peloponnese, and it is plausible that they occupied Crete before that,” wrote James Février (“La genèse de l’alphabet,” in Revue des cours et conférences, 30 March 1939, p. 718).
[←255 ]
Charles Higounet, L’écriture, 5th ed., PUF, Paris 1976, p. 60.
[←256 ]
See Lilian Hamilton Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. A Study of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and its Development from the Eigth to the Fifth Centuries B.C., Clarendon Press, Oxford 1961.
[←257 ]
Barry B. Powell (Homer and the Origin of Greek Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991) goes as far as saying the Greek alphabet was introduced specifically to note the Homeric poems. The writing is mentioned only once by Homer, in the passage of the Iliad (that we already cited) where the king of Argos Prœtos gives Bellerophon a message to deliver to the king of Lycia. The fact that there is only one mention shouldn’t come as a surprise if, as it is likely to be the case, Homeric poems come from a long oral tradition.
[←258 ]
Let us note a curious fact here, a fact that is hard to draw conclusions from. In the Phoenician alphabet, the first letter, ’aleph, the ancestor of our “A,” comes from the stylized representation of a bovine head. In the Fuþark, the first runic letter, F, which is called fehu (faihu in the Gothic alphabet, *fehu being its reconstructed form for Proto-Germanic from that correspondence and fehu in Old Saxon), has the well-established symbolic meaning of “cattle, wealth,” but here it’s most likely sheep.
[←259 ]
James Février, art. cit., p. 719.
[←260 ]
François Chamoux, La civilisation grecque, Arthaud, Paris 1963, p. 55.
[←261 ]
It should be noted that Homer’s Odyssey begins by a vowel: Ándra moi énnette, Moûsa, polútropon, ós mála pollá, “Tell me, Muse, that subtle man who wandered for so long.”
[←262 ]
Eric A. Havelock, Aux origines de la civilisation écrite en Occident, François Maspéro, Paris 1981, p. 36. Ignace Jay Gelb (Pour une théorie de l’écriture, Flammarion, Paris 1973) went as far as questioning whether the systems that don’t include vowels should be considered to be true alphabets: According to him, consonantal alphabets should rather be considered to be syllabaries in which every sign represents a consonant followed by a vowel.
[←263 ]
Gerhard Herm, Les Phéniciens. L’antique royaume de la pourpre, Fayard, Paris 1976, p. 223.
[←264 ]
See André Lemaire, “Les ‘Hyksos’ and les débuts de l’écriture alphabé- tique au Proche-Orient,” in Rina Viers (ed.), Des signes pictographiques à l’alphabet, op. cit., pp. 103–133.
[←265 ]
See Dominique Valbelle, “Hyksos,” in Jean Leclant (ed.), Dictionnaire de l’Antiquité, PUF, Paris 2005, p. 1106.
[←266 ]
Hans Wolfgang Helck, Die Beziehungen Ägyptens zu Vorderasien im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr., Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1962.
[←267 ]
Jürgen von Beckerath, Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägypten. Die Zeitbestimmung der ägyptischen Geschichte von der Vorzeit bis 332 v. Chr., Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997. On this issue, see John Van Seter, The Hyksos. A New Investigation, Yale University Press, New Haven 1966; Donald Bruce Redford, “The Hyksos Invasion in History and Tradition,” in Orientalia, 1970, pp. 1–51.
[←268 ]
See Arthur Evans, Scripta Minoa, the Written Documents of Minoan Crete. With Special Reference to the Archive of Knossos, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1909; William C. Brice, Inscriptions in the Minoan Linear Script of Class A, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1961.
[←269 ]
Harald Haarmann, “Writing from Old Europe to Ancient Crete. A Case of Cultural Continuity,” in The Journal of Indo-European Studies, autumn-winter 1989, pp. 251–275. See also Wilhelm Hauer, Schrift der Götter. Vom Ursprung der Runen, Orion-Heimreiter, Kiel 2006; Hans-Günter Buchholz, “Die ägäischen Schriftsysteme und ihre Ausstrahlung in die ostmediterranen Kulturen,” in Dietrich Gerhardt (ed.), Frühe Schriftzeugnisse der Menschheit, Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969, pp. 88–150.
[←270 ]
See Hubert La Marle, Linéaire A: la première écriture syllabique de Crète, 4 vol., Geuthner, Paris 1997–1999; Introduction au linéaire A. Lire et comprendre l’écriture syllabique de Crète minoenne, Geuthner, Paris 2000.
[←271 ]
Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, “Naissance de l’alphabet,” in L’Histoire, June 1992, p. 21. See also Wolfgang Röllig, “Das phönizische Alphabet und die frühen europäischen Schriften,” in Die Phönizier im Zeitalter Homers, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1990, pp. 87–95.
[←272 ]
André Lemaire, “Origine de l’alphabet et écritures ouest-sémitiques,” in Anne-Marie Christin (ed.), Histoire de l’écriture, op. cit., p. 213.
[←273 ]
Maurice Vieyra, “Aux origines de l’alphabet,” in Atomes, March 1966, pp. 112, 114.
[←274 ]
Maurice Vieyra, “L’alphabet en Grèce: mythes et réalités,” in Atomes, May 1966, p. 241.
[←275 ]
James Février, “La genèse de l’alphabet,” art. cit., p. 708.
[←276 ]
Marcel Cohen, Le Courrier de l’Unesco, March 1964.
[←277 ]
“L’alphabet en Grèce: mythes et réalités,” art. cit., p. 240.
[←278 ]
L’écriture, op. cit., p. 44.
[←279 ]
Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, “Phénicie. Les mystères du premier alphabet,” in Comment est née l’écriture, n° hors-série de Science et vie, June 2002, p. 60.
[←280 ]
Jean-Jacques Prado, L’invasion de la Méditerranée par les peuples de l’Océan, XIIIe siècle avant Jésus-Christ, L’Harmattan, Paris 1992.
[←281 ]
According to some authors, Ramesses III act
ually reigned between roughly 1200 and 1168 BC. In that case, the great confrontation with the Sea Peoples should have taken place in 1190, and the first clashes should have taken place eight years earlier.
[←282 ]
See Alessandra Nibbi, The Sea Peoples and Egypt, Noyes Press, Park Ridge 1975; Günther Hölbl, “Die historischen Aussagen der ägyptischen Seevölkerinschriften,” in Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy (ed.), Griechenland, die Ägäis und die Levante während der “Dark Ages” vom 12. bis zum 9. Jh. v. Chr., Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1983, pp. 121–143; Gustav Adolf Lehmann, “Zum Auftreten von ‘Seevölker’ — Gruppen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum — eine Zwischenbilanz,” ibid., pp. 79–97; Trude Dothan, “Some Aspects of the Appearance of the Sea Peoples and Philistines in Canaan,” ibid., pp. 99–120; David O’Connor, “The Sea Peoples and the Egyptian Source,” in Eliezer D. Oren (ed.), The Sea Peoples and their World: A Reassessment, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 2000, pp. 85–101.
[←283 ]
Eliezer D. Oren (ed.), The Sea Peoples and their World, op. cit., p. XVII. See also Nancy K. Sandars, The Sea Peoples, Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 BC, Thames & Hudson, London 1978 (french translation: Les Peuples de la Mer, guerriers de la Méditerranée antique, France-Empire, Paris 1981).
[←284 ]
Pierre Grandet, “La migration des Peuples de la Mer,” in L’Histoire, April 1990, pp. 16, 19.
[←285 ]
Fred C. Woudhuizen, The Language of the Sea Peoples, Najade Press, Amsterdam 1992.
[←286 ]
Vladimir Georgiev, “Le déchiffrement du texte sur le disque de Phaistos,” in Linguistique balkanique, 1976, pp. 5–47.
[←287 ]
Jean Faucounau, Les Proto-Ioniens. Histoire d’un peuple oublié, L’Harmattan, Paris 2002; Les Peuples de la Mer et leur histoire, L’Harmattan, Paris 2003. See also Alfred Videer, A l’écoute du disque de Phaistos, Du Lérot, Tusson 2014.
[←288 ]
This term is mentioned for the time as Palastou in an Assyrian text from 800 BC. “L’histoire biblique, depuis le livre de Josué jusqu’à celui des Chroniques (qui clôt le canon juif), est une alternance de victoires et de défaites des Philistins sur Israël” (Colette Baer, “Palestinien ou Philistin ?,” in Nouveaux Cahiers, spring 1982, p. 71). See also Jürgen Spanuth, Die Philister, das unbekannte Volk. Lehrmeister und Widersacher der Israeliter, Otto Zeller, Osnabrück 1980.
[←289 ]
Christopher Wilhelm, “On the Possible Origin of the Philistines,” in Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld and Angela Della Volpe (ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Los Angeles, June 4–5, 1999, Institute for the Study of Man, Washington 2000, pp. 173–182.
[←290 ]
Indeed, the name Philistines comprises “both an -ino suffix which applies to many ethnic groups in ancient Illyricum, and a stem found in the name of the city Palaistè in Epirus,” writes Bernard Sergent. He adds the following: “all the regions where both -ino and -st-ino- can be found coincide fairly well with the now noticeable expansion of languages from the macro-Italic group (Italy, Sicily, Veneto, Istria, Dalmatia). This somewhat makes a case to consider the Philistines to be a people from that group, so, paradoxically, to consider them to be ‘Italic’” (Les Indo-Européens, op. cit., p. 107–108).
[←291 ]
Les Peuples de la Mer, op. cit., p. 176. See also Trude Dothan, The Philistines and their Material Culture, Yale University Press, New Haven 1982; Trude and Moshe Dothan, Peoples of the Sea. The Search for the Philistines, Macmillan, New York 1992.
[←292 ]
Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister, The Philistines. Their History and Civilization, British Academy, London 1914, pp. 121–130; A History of Civilization in Palestine, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1921, p. 33.
[←293 ]
See Hendricus Jacobus Franken, “Clay Tablets from Deir ’Alla, Jordan,” in Vetus Testamentum, 1964, pp. 377–379; André Lemaire, “Deux tablettes non déchiffrées de Deir ’Alla,” in Fawzi Zayadine and al. (ed.), La voie royale, 9000 ans d’art au royaume de Jordanie, Association française d’action artistique, Paris 1986, p. 85.
[←294 ]
See Joseph Naveh, “Some Considerations on the Ostracon from ’Izbet Sartah,” in Israel Exploration Journal, 1978, pp. 31–35. See also Trude Dothan, “La première apparition de l’écriture en Philistie,” in Rina Viers (ed.), Des signes pictographiques à l’alphabet, op. cit., pp. 165–171.
[←295 ]
Les Phéniciens, op. cit., p. 66.
[←296 ]
Letter of Salomon to Hiram, king of Tyre (1 Kings 5, 17–20). The Phoenicians, who are sometimes called “Sidonians” in the Bible, are also the people who created the first copper mine in the Gulf of Aqaba. During David’s reign, the Hebrew bought large amounts of ore and cedar trunks from them (1 Chronicles 22, 3–4). Relations got worse after the marriage of the eldest son of the king of Israel, Achab, with the daughter of the king of Tyre, Jezabel. She was assassinated, and this led to the massacre of the royal family of Israel and of the princes of Judea (2 Kings 9–10). Lastly, the temple of Baal was destroyed and its priests massacred (2 Chronicles 23, 17).
[←297 ]
Sabatino Moscati, The World of the Phoenicians, Praeger, New York 1968 (French translation: L’épopée des Phéniciens, Fayard, Paris 1971).
[←298 ]
On the debate on the origins of this writing, see Dominique Casajus, L’alphabet touareg, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2015.
[←299 ]
Christopher Wilhelm, “The ‘Aeneid’ and Italian Prehistory,” in Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig Melchert and Brent Wine (ed.), Proceedings of the 22nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Los Angeles, November 5th and 6th, 2010, Hempen, Bremen 2011, pp. 255–268. See also Norbert Oettinger, “Seevölker und Etrusker,” in Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan and Jared L. Miller (ed.), Pax Hethitica. Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010.
[←300 ]
Fritz Schachermeyr, Etruskische Frühgeschichte, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1929.
[←301 ]
Robert S. P. Beekes, The Origin of the Etruscans, Koninklijke Nederlands Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam 2003.
[←302 ]
Livy describes Antenor as the chief of the Eneti mentioned in the Iliad (II, 852), whose name has sometimes been linked to the name of the Veneti. The center of his cult was located in Aponus, which is now Abano, near Padua. See Lorenzo Braccesi, La leggenda di Antenore. Da Troia a Padova, Signum, Padova 1984.
[←303 ]
See Cristiano Vernesi, David Caramelli, Isabelle Dupanloup et al., “The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study,” in American Journal of Human Genetics, 2004, pp. 694–704.
[←304 ]
Vladimir Georgiev, La lingua e l’origine degli Etruschi, Nagard, Roma 1979; “L’origine degli Etruschi come problema della storia delle tribù egee,” in Studi etruschi, 1950, pp. 101–124.
[←305 ]
Giulio Facchetti, Appunti di morfologia etrusca. Con un appendice sulla questione delle affinità genetiche dell’etrusco, S. Olschki, Firenze 2002.
[←306 ]
On the question of the relationship between Etruscan and Rhaetian languages, see Helmut Rix, Rätisch und Etruskisch, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1998.
[←307 ]
Fred C. Woudhuizen, The Liber Linteus. A Word for Word Commentary to and Translation of the Longest Etruscan Text, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Innsbruck 2013. From the same author, see also Etruscan as a Colonial Luwian Language, Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck 2008; “Etruscan and Luwian,” in The Journal of Indo-European Studies, 1991, pp. 133–150.
[←308 ]
See Massimo Pittau, La lingua sardiana o dei Protosardi, Ettore Gasperini, Cagliari 2001.
[←309 ]
See Carlo De Simone, I Tirreni a Lemnos. Evidenze linguistica e tradizioni storiche, S. Olschki, Firenze 1996.
[←310 ]
Marcel Cohen, La grande invention de l’écriture et son évolution, C. Klincksieck, Paris 1958. See also Roger Druet and Herman Grégoire, La civilisation de l’écriture, Fayard, Paris 1970, p. 33.