Re-writing the Script: Decoding the textual experience in the Bronze Age Levant (c.2000–1150 bc)

A review of the types of writing found in the Southern Levant during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages underlines one fact: textual evidence is much rarer in this region than contemporary Egypt, Syria-Lebanon or Mesopotamia. There is a dearth of significant deposits of clay tablet archives or sealings, and the organic materials on which so much ancient writing was probably carried out, such as wood, leather and imported papyrus are only rarely preserved. Even within the materials that have survived, there are further problems with chronology and context, as many examples are poorly provenanced, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly when various developments in palaeography or technique took place. The fact that these data are both statistically insignificant and heavily biased towards certain types of materials makes it something of a challenge to establish how and when different types of script were introduced into the area and the ways in which they were subsequently used, and there is the constant risk that we may have to ‘rewrite’ our understanding of these processes as fresh evidence comes to hand. Most studies that have been done on writing in the region have been quite specialised, focusing on particular scripts and tending to concentrate on aspects of language rather than the way in which writing is created and used. In particular, the material aspects of this technology have rarely been addressed. This has served to obscure its overall range and diversity. There are currently around 61 cuneiform texts attributable to the Bronze Age (recording Sumerian, Akkadian, and West Semitic languages; Horowitz et al. 2006), three in alphabetic cuneiform, some 17 Proto-Canaanite examples (Sass 1988; Hamilton 2006; 2010), six in Hittite hieroglyphic (Singer 1977; 1993; 2003) and two probable examples of Aegean scripts (this figure