The Byblos syllabary is known from nine inscriptions found in Byblos, conventionally dated to betwenn the 18th and 15th centuries BC. The script is a syllabary of modified Egyptian hieroglyphs. The inscriptions are an important link between the Egyptian hieroglyphic script and the later Semitic abjads derived from Proto-Canaanite. The inscriptions are stamped on copper plates or spatulas and carved in stone. They were excavated by M. Dunand, from 1928 to 1932 and published in 1945 in the monograph Byblia Grammata. Byblos (βύβλος) is the Greek name of the Phoenician city Gebal (earlier Gubla); Its present day Arabic name is Jbeil (جبيل) Ancient history It was known to the ancient Egyptians as Keben and Kepen (probably pronounced */g-b-l/). The Greeks apparently called it Byblos because it was through Gebal that bublos... // Events 1787 - 1784 BC -- Amorite conquests of Uruk and Isin 1786 BC -- Egypt: Queen Sobekneferu died. ... // Overview Events 1504 BC – 1492 BC -- Egypt conquers Nubia and the Levant. ... A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. ... Hieroglyphs are a system of writing used by the Ancient Egyptians, using a combination of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements. ... The history of the alphabet starts in ancient Egypt. ... The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is the linear (, non-Cuneiform) abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs. ...
A translation attempt was published by Mendenhall (1986), who dates the texts to as early as 2400 BC, and another one by Garbini (1988). Colless (1998) emphasizes the close relationship to the descendant Proto-Canaanite and Phoenician scripts. The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is the linear (, non-Cuneiform) abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ...
Literature
Brian COlless, The Canaanite Syllabary, Ancient Near Eastern Studies 35 (1998), 26-46.
Giovanni Garbini, Rivista di studi fenici 16 (1988), 129-131.
George Mendenhall, The Syllabic Inscriptions from Byblos, Syracuse University Press (1986), ISBN 0815660774.
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