A Palette of Scripts Writing in and around the Iron Age Mediterranean

Abstract

While the emergence of alphabetic writing in the Mediterranean is a much-told story, it is rarely set within its broader context of nearby contemporary writing cultures. That is the context this Element seeks to explore: the palette of scripts in use during the Iron Age in the highly connected area between western Asia, northern Africa and the shores of the Mediterranean. Some of these scripts continued from the Bronze Age while others were newly introduced. Far from the startling innovation it has been conceived as, Greek alphabetic writing was a relatively late introduction owing much not only to the Levantine script from which it was immediately developed but also to a much longer and far more widespread legacy of literacy. This Element considers the typologies and features of the writing systems, but also their usage, treating writing as a fundamentally cultural practice undertaken by socially and culturally diverse human beings.