While cuneiform was first
invented, it is currently thought, by accountants, and developed by scribes and
scholars, the alphabet seems to have had much more plebian origins. The latest archaeological discoveries suggest
that alphabetic writing was the brainwave of a group of expatriate Semitic
workers resident in Egypt early in the second millennium BCE. Inspired by the pictographic Egyptian writing
system we call hieroglyphs – ‘priest signs’ – they dreamt up a shorthand to use
with their own language.
(from Babylon by Paul Kriwaczek)
9½*/10.
The complete review is here.
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