Biblical Hebrew Forum

["R. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>]

No. The letter shapes and ductus, the lack of tracking and kerning, and more features show clearly that this kind of script at this stage of alphabet development, was *not* designed nor apt for flat writing. This is true for Ancient North Arabian alphabetic script types as well as for the so called Proto-Sinaitics.

Even if you only have engraved script left, there are sufficient parameters to decide whether a certain script type has a flat writing tradition in its background or not.

For the Old Byblian Inscriptions for instance (Ahiram, Shipitbaal, Elibaal etc) there definitely was.

For the Proto-Sinaitic, the ANA or the Palestinian Graffiti, also Izbet Sarta or Qeiyafa, there definitely was *not*.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann, Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
lehmann AT uni-mainz.de
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/eng
11th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH) 2013:
http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:55:01 -0700
From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] akkadian bible?
To: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
Cc: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "R.
Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>
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George:

Seeing as if there was any significant writing from ancient nomadic
cultures, if it was of any decent length to include histories and
religion, would it not have been written on leather or other such
portable materials? And the probability of such materials surviving to
this day is so slight as to be practically zero?

Weren?t some of the graffiti in the Sinai attributed to nomads?

Karl W. Randolph.

On 4/11/13, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au> wrote:

Thanks for the input, Dr Lehmann. Oral tradition for nomadic cultures is,

indeed, the norm. Writing is quite extraordinary. Do we have any examples of

writing from ancient nomadic cultures?

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia