Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/320

Rh have derived their knowledge of the art from the Egyptians. This view was generally received by the small band of scholars who knew, or cared to know anything about the subject—its ablest champion being Dr. Isaac Taylor, who, in his great work on "The Alphabet," vol. i, has said about all that can be said in favour of the Egyptian parentage of Semitic letters. Recent discoveries tend to prove (and, I believe, do prove with as much certainty as we can hope to arrive at in a matter of this kind) that the Phœnician alphabet is the sister rather than the parent of the Jewish and Aramean letters. I am much interested in the recent discoveries in this branch of archæological research, because I, an obscure student working all alone in the great field of Biblico-archæological enquiry, hesitated from the first to accept this view, however ably supported by the learned historian of the art of writing. The forms of many of the Siloam letters bearing, as they do, a positive resemblance to the objects whose names they bear, would suggest the derivation of this early Semitic script from an ancient ideographic system, which, from the result of recent study of the question, would appear to be of Asian rather than Egyptian origin. The supporters of the Egyptian hypothesis have never satisfactorily demonstrated the inability of the Semitic peoples to frame a system of alphabetic writing for themselves, nor do they appear to have given adequate attention to the history and comparison of other great Asian scripts, which rival the hieroglyphics of Egypt in antiquity. I rather favour the view of Professor Meyer, held likewise by Major Conder, that the oldest Semitic writing had at least a definite relation to that graphic system, which, for want of a better name, is known to scholars as "Hittite," or "Altaic." I believe the origin of alphabetic writing will be found in that direction. Further discovery and comparative study will clear up the matter, which is of great interest and importance, not only to the Biblical critic but to every student of human civilisation.

The Siloam alphabet presents some peculiar forms which are worth careful study, being apparently more ancient than those of any other text yet discovered, although some of the letters show the early operation of the "law of least effort" in their tendency towards hieratic or cursive types.

The Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Vaw, Zayin, Yod, Caph, Lamed, and 'Ain are evidently pictorial, and easily deducible from a primitive hieroglyphic system.

The Aleph is similar to the type of that letter found on the Asmonean coins, but unlike the Moabite or later Phœnician forms. Probably this form of Aleph was adopted in lapidary writing, in order to improve the appearance of the letter and to avoid the acute angle, which would be very troublesome in inscribing texts on stone at all liable to fracture. I notice, however, in Professor Sayce's "Assyrian Syllabary," 232, a Cuneiform sign having various phonetic values, of which the Assyrian rendering is "Alpu," bull, this sign being very similar to the ancient Jewish Aleph, may be connected with it.