Easy as ABC
that's alpha, beta, gamma in the old days
Today I am going to write about alphabets. Progress was almost non-existent until we developed the ability to speak and a written language to pass important stuff to the future. Frequent readers know I like Ockham's Razor as an inspiration to believe that the simplest explanation is often the best. So many significant things happen on our planet but in truth for almost 4.5 billion years progress is frighteningly slow. It cannot be coincidence that so much we all now consider significant happened after we first figured out our ABCs.
The Inspiration
Our newsfeeds are driven by our interests. Since beginning my writing I have presented articles about interesting topics related to my posts. I would imagine if I spent a lot of time thinking about the Kardashians, my path to learning new things would be narrow or certainly different. I am glad that I don’t frequent social media very much as I think it functionally creates a funnel of narrower and narrower topics and would make my world smaller. I would not like that.
If I were to guess why the inspiration for today’s post appeared in my newsfeed it would be due to my posts about Babylon and the influence of that culture on the world we know today. It seems that my new hobby of writing a Newsletter is affecting my newsfeed! On the treadmill this morning I read about the evolution of the alphabet and thought it might be interesting to learn a little more.
I consider the development of speech/language and later an alphabet to be pivotal events in the development of mankind. An alphabet is a much easier analysis as archaeology can guide the study. More ingenious considerations will be required to theorize the development of speech/language. So today we will focus on the alphabet.
The Setup
The story of us is the most fascinating story of all to me. How did we get to today and what were the big steps that changed everything and made this modern world possible? Frequent readers know I am fascinated by the progression of humans. I enjoy Ockham’s Razor as a sensible way to explain many things. Why does “everything just speed up” in human history after about 250000 years of not too much to report around 3000 BC? For the same reason that I love to read and write, I think it is the development of language and its recording that changes everything.
For me, it is no coincidence why other things “just seem to happen” around that period which we see as pivotal to our development, and our beliefs. I think this is a likely option ala Ockham’s Razor as we simply would not know about it in any meaningful way. For me, this is a simple explanation. The onset of a written language brings with it very soon afterward the emergence of the first inkling of monotheistic beliefs in Sumeria and Babylon. Judaism will formally emerge soon afterward. The age of inspiration and the very first time in human history has arrived to sustain it! Key moments and pivotal beliefs would not have survived in the periods before the written or spoken word.
The lack of records from such pivotal moments that preceded these key developments means we will likely never know much more. Even when cultural glyphs are found perhaps carved into a cave wall, the limitation to propagate beliefs is simply not present. With this opinion in mind, I think the alphabet and its evolution is a worthwhile topic and for me, is likely the pivot point on which the rise of sophisticated and sustainable human civilization will rise. Understanding this evolution, it is not surprising that “the beginning of time” for many cultures is just before this period. Many important narratives of the world began around 5000-6000 years ago and the coincidence, with this understanding, is not shocking. It is not unreasonable that “camp stories” might relate to the generations before the written word and that allows us to imagine narratives that might peek backward beyond 3500 BCE but not much further is the likeliest outcome.
The Details
As a child, I enjoyed the cartoon “The Flintstones” as “the modern stone-age family”. We are finally there…this cartoon from my childhood is about pre-historic times. Since we had not figured out how to talk and writing, there is no history and that makes it pre-historic.
Despite the lack of recorded information, our pre-historic period still has some highlights worth discussing that lead quickly to the alphabet. Thankfully science through such studies as archeology has pieced together a narrative and timeline for this period back to 2.5 million BC. For this, we should be grateful as the written word can only get us to about 3000 BCE with glyphs.
The pre-historic age when there were the first beginnings of humankind dates from about 2.5 million BC to 1200 BC. It encompasses the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages.
Stone Age — this is the Paleolithic, mesolithic, and Neolithic periods. These are the long pre-human and human ancestors living side by side as hunter-gatherers and eventually settling down and becoming farmers. Humans were largely nomads until the Neolithic Age (8000 BC to 3000 BC {50 centuries}) which brought the shift to agriculture and the production and storage of food through the seasons including grains and cereals. All sorts of things like pottery, plows, and clothesmaking and weaving emerge.
The Bronze Age (3000 BC to 1300 BC) {17 centuries} — Early metalworking transforms lives, allows great innovation in food raising, and construction, and allows great innovations to everyday life to make things. This is the era of the Egyptian pyramids. There is even early writing from this era and the accompanying emergence of many religions. It is no coincidence in my opinion that before this period until writing emerged, organized belief systems could not be fostered and passed on to the next generation.
This brings us to the wonder of the alphabet. We must credit the Egyptians and their hieroglyphics for getting the ball rolling. The cultures of Canaan and Babylon began to repurpose the glyphs into sounds and eventually letters. The Sinai Desert is something we all associate with Egypt today. The first recognized alphabet recognizes its roots and is called Proto Sinaiatic (1750 BCE). My take on that is a prototype based on Sinai and serves to make it easy for me to remember! This occurs in Canaan around the biblical land of modern Israel. It is therefore not surprising that the Bible will emerge from this starting point!
Rapid incorporation and improvement by the Phoenicians around 1000 BCE (modern-day Lebanon), crossed the Mediterranean (the Phoenician culture were prolific sailors) and inspired Arabic, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Greek.
By 750 BCE we have a workable and recognizable Greek alphabet. The period from 3000 BCE to 750 BCE laid the groundwork for the modern world and finally, the ability to pass knowledge, tradition, and creative thought forward to the next generation. Viewed in these terms, the alphabet changes everything. The Greek alphabet is borrowed forward into Latin (500 BCE) and Roman (1 AD).
The music tonight is a blast from my past. Here is another tune not to ignore based on today’s title. The talent is inconceivable in a child! Lightning in a bottle.