Inventing Writing in South-west Asia
The shift from symbols to writing represents a major advancement in human cognitive technology. What role did Mesopotamian seal imagery play?
The Phaistos Disk–An Enigmatic Artifact in its Cultural Context
The Phaistos Disk is a unique Minoan object that has intrigued scholars since its discovery in 1908. Still undeciphered, the disk displays over 240 signs in a spiral. Is it authent
The Alphabet: The First Thousand Years
The alphabet is probably the most important information technology ever invented. Why did it take a millennium to spread unevenly around the ancient Near East?
The Greek Alphabet: Older Than You May Think?
March 2019 | Vol. 7.3 By Willemijn Waal The Greek alphabet is often considered to be the first ‘true’ alphabet, from which all modern alphabets are derived. So why does it look
Hebrew as the Language behind the World’s First Alphabet?
Which Semitic language – and people – stands behind the enigmatic Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions? A controversial proposal brings us back to familiar, if equally controversial, gr