10 Did the Phoenicians use matres?
According to Naveh (1987:62), there were no matres in early Phoenician inscriptions before the eighth century BC. This is not surprising as such inscriptions were few in Phoenicia. The Phoenician script should have been much more widely used from the eleventh century to the eighth century BC than was attested by the extant scanty inscriptions. We believe that among the Semites, the Phoenicians must have had the greatest need for using matres to write foreign names as they had to make extensive trading contacts with the other Mediterranean peoples. Continue reading “Section 10 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”
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