Egyptian Dreams

neseret

Oldest ABCs Primer Found on Ancient Pottery

Quote:

The ostracon contains an incomplete list of words written in hieratic, the cursive script used in ancient Egypt for some 3,000 years. The instructional list of words in alphabetical order is called an abecedary.

The text remained obscure until recently, when it was deciphered by Ben Haring, a Dutch Egyptologist working at Leiden University.

“The abecedary is basically a list of words ordered by their first consonant sounds. The order is not the ABC of modern western alphabets, but Halaḥam (HLḤM), the order known from the ancient Egyptian, ancient Arabian and classical Ethiopian scripts,” Haring told Discovery News.

Haring has also published an article on this ostracon, under the title

Haring. B. 2015. Halaam on an Ostracon of the Early New Kingdom? JNES 74/2: 189-96.

Page 1 is available for free viewing here.

If you would like a copy of the entire article, please PM me.

HTH.
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Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Oriental Studies
Doctoral Programme [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom

Robson · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:53 pm Post subject:

Alphabet or abugida?

neseret · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 8:24 am Post subject:

Robson · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 7:40 pm Post subject:

Abugida, also called alphasyllabary are quasi-alphabetic scripts, that include syllabic and, sometimes, in borderline cases, ideographic signs, just like the Ge'ez script from Ethiopia (where the term is from) and South/Southeast Asian Brahmic scripts. Meroitic script is among one of those borderline cases.

dzama923 · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:06 pm Post subject:

I was under the impression that an ostracon was a vote to ban people from an organization. Is this what is meant by the text title?

Lutz · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 11:47 pm Post subject:

" Egyptian limestone and potsherd ostraca "
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Ägyptologie - Forum (German)