Phoenician Alphabet

Type Object Region Levant Time c. -1000–1

A consonantal alphabet formed on the Levantine coast between the late second and first millennia BCE, recording language with twenty-odd phonetic sig…

Timeline

c. -1050–-900Byblos and Tyre · LebanonThe Phoenician alphabet evolved from earlier Sinai inscriptions and Canaanite writing traditions, forming a linear alphabetic system representing only consonants; inscriptions unearthed at Byblos and elsewhere provide archaeological evidence of its early forms.
c. -800–-500Phoenician colonies across the Mediterranean · MediterraneanThe alphabet entered the Greek world along trade routes, and the Greeks introduced vowel signs to form the Greek alphabet; it also spread to Carthage in North Africa, Iberia, Sardinia, and elsewhere, with colonial inscriptions using local Phoenician variants.
c. -400–1Levant and the eastern Mediterranean · LevantThe Greek alphabet gave rise to the Latin and Cyrillic traditions, while Aramaic influenced Hebrew and Arabic scripts; late Phoenician remained in use for local inscriptions and religious texts until gradually replaced by Hellenistic writing.

Sources

The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind — David Diringer (1948)
A History of Writing — Steven Roger Fischer (2001)