Queries & Comments

This hieroglyph is very rare in Egypt only in the very special use that I refer to as “the Sinai use,” i.e., as foreman or the like. Nobody really knows how to read this sign in this context, or more precisely how the Egyptians pronounced it, or the exact meaning it held for them.

The fact that this hieroglyph in this special use is so popular in Sinai, of all places, leads me to think that it refers to some special function in the Sinai expedition. The only certain other examples of this hieroglyph in this special use are 010from border areas in Egypt and from Tell el-Daba (Avaris) in the eastern Delta, all from more or less the same period.

The best discussion of this sign in this special use is by the famous American Egyptologist W. K. Simpson in Papyrus Reisner I: The Records of a Building Project in the Reign of Sesostris I (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1963), pp. 82–83.

You are right that this sign appears in the Amarna texts and in many other texts in Egypt, but there it appears as the word “high,” “tall” and in very different uses. You can find it discussed in Alan Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar (Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1957, 1988), under hieroglyph A28 in the sign list. It may also be used as a classifier (determinative).

Your handwriting is very beautiful. Do you study Egyptian? When I write again on this topic, I shall take care to explain this point more explicitly.

A,B,C—Computer!

Without the one-time invention of the alphabet, we would probably never have made it to the computer age!

Same Name, Different Sphinx

Re: “How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs.”

There is another well-known sphinx which has the name “Ba‘alat” written on it as a label. Look at Plate 1A of Joseph Naveh’s Early History of the Alphabet (pictured below). The label shows the B with an open door of the “par,” house.

A True Alphabet Has Vowels

While I appreciated parts of the article on Serabit al-Khadem’s Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions in the March/April BAR, my study under the brilliant linguist J. Ignace Gelb at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in 1974–1975 requires that certain parts of Professor Goldwasser’s article not go unchallenged.

The Canaanites did not invent the alphabet. At best they extracted 22 signs from the already existing 24 uniliteral signs found in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. This can easily be demonstrated by comparing, not the shapes of the signs according to the acrophonic principle as 012Goldwasser does, but the inner linguistic structure of Egyptian as advocated by Gelb. Strictly speaking, a true alphabet contains vowel signs, meaning that the Greeks were the first to produce a full alphabet. Semitic scripts prior to the Massoretes [who in the tenth century C.E. provided diacritical marks, or pointing, to indicate vowels in Hebrew texts] can best be described as “open consonantal” uniliteral writing [a consonant plus an unspecified vowel]. Gelb was right in describing the Proto-Sinaitic script as “the mother of all the alphabets.”

An Illiterate Indian Invented a Writing System

The article “How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs” reminded me of another instance, much more recent, of the invention of one writing system from another by an illiterate individual. In the early 1800s, Sequoya of the Cherokee tribe surmised (correctly) that a major reason for the dominance of Europeans over Native Americans was the European ability to communicate at a distance with writing. Sequoya could neither speak nor understand English, but he did have access to English letters in mission-school primers. After 12 years of work, in 1822 Sequoya introduced to the tribe a writing system for the Cherokee language. The 85 symbols in part resemble English letters and in part were simply invented by Sequoya. His writing system was a syllabary, rather than a consonant alphabet, but Sequoya was able to teach the writing system rapidly to the tribe, and within a few years most of the Cherokees were literate in their own language. One of the first books printed in Cherokee was the New Testament. I have always felt that Sequoya’s work was one of the great intellectual achievements in history.

Archery 101

The bow of the Canaanite warrior depicted on page 45 of the March/April 2010 issue (Orly Goldwasser, “How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs”) is described in the text as a composite bow and in the caption as a compound bow. A composite bow is one made from two or more dissimilar materials and fastened together, usually by either gluing or wrapping. A compound bow is a 20th-century contraption consisting of a bow with pulleys and string attached in order to gain leverage. Today’s compound bows would not have been recognizable to a Canaanite.

Pure archery has not changed much, and our Canaanite with his quiver on his shoulder would have been at home in any archery club today. He is carrying what appears to be a recurved bow that seems to be “back strung” to help it keep its shape.

Additional reader comments on this article—some funny, some erudite, all interesting—will appear in the next (September/October) issue of BAR.—Ed.

014

Rare Ancient Coin

Rare Coin Left for Tip

While I can’t attest to the ultimate provenance of the coin in question (“Rare Ancient Coin—Is It a Forgery?” BAR 36:02), I can say that I saw someone strongly resembling Oded Golan leave it as a tip for the waiter following a bowl of hummus at Abu Shukri, some five years ago. I attempted to purchase it off the waiter, but he redirected me to his uncle, a mysterious fellow named Kando, in Bethlehem. At this point, the price got too high for me, but I did purchase a nice olivewood manger set.

BAR Reader Is ROFLOL

As to the authenticity or forgery of the coin on page 33 of the March/April issue of BAR, my first thought was that the flame coming out of the lamp depicted on the coin seems very contemporary, not ancient. Also, the lamp itself has a certain simplicity of form that seems too modern.

I don’t know why I wasted my time with the lamp. I laid the magazine aside, and the next time I opened it, it stuck out at me: An ancient coin that some of the world’s leading numismatists are puzzling over, happens to have the initials of a popular scholarly magazine: BAR, as clear as can be. That is when it turned into ROFLOL, “rolling on floor laughing out loud.”

Royal Stoa

I loved the article on the Royal Stoa (Aryeh Shimron and Orit Peleg-Barkat, “New Evidence of the Royal Stoa and Roman Flames,” BAR 36:02). This is, of course, “Solomon’s Portico” which is spoken of in the Gospel of John (John 10:23).

Cartoons

Catholic, as Well as an Orthodox Jew, Offended

I have been a subscriber to BAR for decades. I noticed in this month’s issue, among the letters to the editor, is one from an Orthodox Jew who is unhappy with the cartoons of Biblical events as a basis for a Cartoon Caption Contest. I want to add that, as a Catholic, I also find them sacrilegious. Not everything in the world should be joked about.

Cartoon Captions in Bad Taste

Your Cartoon Caption Contests are demeaning, in bad taste and would be humiliating if you look outside the BAR office. Get rid of them. Still loyal.

How Does Hershel Feel?

As a long-time fan of BAR, I have a question for Hershel. I was reading a big 070stack of past issues and often found letters to the editor, some of which flame you and attack your motives. Could you give at least a brief reply about how you manage the heat in the kitchen over the years? Have you ever found the criticisms accurate? Do you end up feeling bad for your words? Does the criticism make you furious, cost you sleep? Has it ever made you want to quit BAR? Have you written flaming responses, only to be calmed down by your associates, modifying or even tearing up your response?

I find it all quite fascinating to read. The heated contentions demonstrate that archaeologists are very human, with silly jealousies, covetousness, public posturing, intellectual dishonesty, along with the nobler aspects of the field, which makes for some great letters to the editor.

I’d rather read the letters than watch the Friday night fights on TV. There is a lot more action

Hershel Shanks responds:

The truth is that I am not hurt by the criticism, but I don’t know why. Is it because (1) if you can’t stand the heat, don’t go into the kitchen; (2) boxers take blows as well as give them; (3) we’re involved in the search for truth, justice or simply good solutions and this is part of the process for finding it; (4) we’re having too good a time to be hurt; (5) none of the above?