EIRENE N. RAGOUSI HELLENIC ALPHABET ITS ORIGINS, USE, AND EARLY FUNCTIONS The Phoenicians who came with Cadmus—amongst whom were the Gephyraei—introduced into Greece, after their settlement in the country, a number of accomplishments, of which the most important was writing, an art till then, I think, unknown to the Greeks. At first they used the same characters as all the other Phoenicians, but as time went on, and they chanted their language, they also changed the shape of their letters. At that period most of the Greeks in the neighborhood were Ionians; they were taught these letters by the Phoenicians and adopted them, with a few alterations, for their won use, continuing to refer to them as the Phoenician characters—as was only right, as the Phoenicians had introduced them. The Ionians also call paper ‘skins’ [papyrus]—a survival from antiquity when paper was hard to get, and they did actually use goat and sheepskins to write on. Indeed, even today many foreign people use this material. In the temple of Ismenian Apollo at Thebes in Boeotia I have myself seen cauldrons with inscriptions cut on them in Cadmean characters—most of them not very different from the Ionian.1
But [Kadmos], bringing gifts of voice and thought for all Greece, made tools that echoed the tongue, mingling vowels [άζυγα (things that exist in isolation)] and consonants [σύζυγα (things that connect)], all in a row [στοιχηδον] of integrated harmony. He rounded off a gravent [γραπτόν] model of speaking silence, having learned the ancestral mysteries of the divine art.2
1 2
Herodotus, 5.58‐60 (trans. by A. D. Selincourt). Nonnos 4.259‐64 (trans. by B.C. Powell).
Alphabet is a form of writing whose elements represent the actual sounds of the spoken word. The alphabetic signs, which represent single phonemes, when combined, “translate the aural, invisible elements of human speech into graphic, visible signs.”3 The first alphabetic script developed in the late ninth or early eighth century BC, forming the Hellenic alphabet. The great majority of the signs of this alphabet were adopted by the Phoenician script, a West Semitic consonantal syllabary.4 Which was probable developed in ca. 1000 BC.5 However, the revolutionary character of the Hellenic alphabet was achieved through some phonetic alterations of the existing signs and the addition of new signs. Whereas the Semitic syllabary was exclusively consonantal, the Hellenic script evolved into a phonetic writing with the alteration of five Phoenician consonants into vowels. In addition to that, four signs were added—phi (φ), psi (ψ), chi (χ), and omega (ω)—to cover all the range of sounds in the Hellenic language.6 These alterations and additions formed the first alphabet, which managed to create a visual representation of all the phonetic elements of speech. Some scholars have suggested that the Hellenic alphabet was formed to facilitate the writing of poetry, in the eight century BC.7 On the other hand, historical and archaeological evidence reveal that the development of the Hellenic alphabet facilitated exchange and commercial activities. The initial 3 I. J. Gelb, A Study of Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1063) 248; B. B. Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)2. 4 “Syllabary or syllabic writing is a writing in which a sign normally stands for one or more syllables of the language.” Gelb, Study of Writing, 253. 5 For the development of the Hellenic alphabet and its forerunners see Gelb, Study of Writing, 166‐83; R. S. Stroud, “The Art of Writing in Ancient Greece,” in W. M. Senner, ed. The Origins of Writing (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1989)103‐19; esp. 113‐11; R. Harris, The Origin of Writing (Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1986); Powell. Homer and the Origin, 68‐118; E. Havelock, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) 60‐88. 6 Stroud, “Art of Writing,” 113. 7 L. A. Wade‐Gery, The Poet of the Iliad (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1952) 11‐14; K. Robb, “The Poetic Sources of the Greek Alphabet,” in E. Havelock & J. Hershebell, eds. Communication Arts in the Ancient World (N. York: Hastings House, 1978) 23‐26; Havelock, Literate Revolution; A. Achnapp‐Gourbeillon, “Naissance de l’ ecriture et fonction poetique un grece archaique: quelques points de repere.” Annales ESC 37 (1982): 714‐23; Powell, Homer and the Origin.
function of the forerunners of the alphabet—the word‐syllabic and syllabic scripts—was to facilitate almost exclusively; administrative and commercial accounting. In addition to that, the actual pattern of transmission of the Phoenician script in Hellas and the further diffusion of the Hellenic alphabet in Italy and in Phrygia reveals the association of the Mediterranean commercial network with the development and transmission of the alphabet in the late Dark and Archaic Age. Finally, the majority of the earliest Hellenic inscriptions illustrates “proprietorial concern,”8 pointing implicitly to the commercial function of the new script. Thus the origins, patterns of transmission, and the early uses of the alphabet suggest that the Hellenic script was formed to facilitate exchange and commercial transactions. The controversy over the original function of the Hellenic alphabet started in 1949 and continues into the 1990s. In the J. H. Gray lecture for 1949, H. T. Wade‐ Gery, stressing the revolutionary phonetic accuracy of the Hellenic script, suggested that the alphabet was formed as a notation for Hellenic verse.9 This suggestion came to challenge the older view that stated that the initial purpose of the alphabet was to facilitate the rising commercial activities in the Mediterranean between Hellenes and Phoenicians in the eighth century BC.10 Although the initial reaction over Wad‐Gery’s suggestion was negative, it finally gained supporters over the years. Examining the importance of orality and oral composition in archaic Hellas, E. Havelock concluded that the phonetic accuracy of the alphabet served to promote a greater degree of memorization of oral recitation: A. Johnston, “The Extent and Use of Literacy: The Archaeological Evidence,’ in R. Hagg, ed. The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century BC: Tradition and Innovation. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens, 1‐5 June, 1981 (Stockholm; Paul Astroms Forlag, 1983) 67. 9 Wade‐Gery, Poet of the Iliad, 11‐14. 10 A. M Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971) 78‐84; Johnston, “The Extent and Use of Literacy,” 63‐67; W. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989) 45. 8
We should rather ask: given the fact that the epic enjoyed a purely auditory existence, memorized and repeated orally, what was likely to be the original motive for bringing this contrived language into contact with the signs of the alphabet? … The motive was mnemonic, a response to the same psychological pressure that had inspired and governed the oral technique; the alphabetic signs offered a supplement to the energies required for memorization…. This amounts to saying that alphabetization was originally a function of oral recitation; the two were intermingled.11
Furthermore, K. Robb suggested that the creation or vowels in the Hellenic script was associated with their important function in meter. The dactyl, the Hellenic epic meter that is formed by a long syllable followed by two short syllables presupposes the need for both consonant and vowels.12 Thus, according to Robb, alphabetization was the original function of epic composition: The poetic unit in Greek epic meter is the dactyl, which is constituted by a long syllable followed by two short syllables (‐uu)…. At root then Greek meter is a function of the sequence of consonant and vowel, so that it is the value of the vowel, in itself and in relationship to a consonant, which determines whether a syllable is long or short. It follows that the one thing to which an adequate written record of such a line could never be indifferent is the sequence of the vowels.13
Finally, B. Powell formulated a theory that holds the epic hexametric poetry exclusively responsible for the development of the Hellenic alphabet. The scholar adopted the view of monogenesis, which states that the alphabet was adopted, developed, and transmitted initially by the same individual. In addition to that, he stressed the fact that a great number of the early alphabetic inscriptions record hexametric verses, so that he associated oral poetry with the
Havelock, “The alphabetization of Homer,” in The Literate Revolution, 180. Robb, “Poetic Sources,” 23‐36. 13 Ibid., 29. 11 12
development of the alphabet.14 Thus, holding Palamedes, a legendary figure associated with the introduction of many inventions—including that of writing— in Hellas, as the actual adapter of the Phoenician script, Powell claimed that this individual developed the Hellenic alphabet in order to record the Homeric epics: Behind figures of heroic legend often stand real men…. As for Palamedes, the Greeks especially knew one thing about him: he was so clever that he devised a way to write down Greek speech…. In Palamedes we may have found the adapter’s very name…. We cannot separated the recording of early hexametric poetry from Homer… Homer sang his song and the adapter took him down. From this momentous event came classical Greek civilization and its achievements.15
Nevertheless, although the theory which holds alphabetization the original offspring of orality the oral composition has been gradual elaborated over the years, it still leaves many important questions unanswered: why the forerunners of the alphabet were almost exclusively employed in administrative and commercial accounting? Why the adoption of the Phoenician signs and the transmission of the alphabet took place along the ancient Mediterranean trade routes? Why alphabetization occurred the same time that the Hellenic world reenacted and expanded its commercial activities? Why the majority of the earliest alphabetic inscriptions record ownership? The answers to all these questions reveal an explicit association between alphabetization and patterns of exchange in the ancient Mediterranean world. Thus this paper will examine how the origins, patterns of transmission, and early uses of the alphabet reveal that the original function of the Hellenic alphabet was to facilitate exchange. The syllabic scripts and forerunners of the alphabet—Linear A, Linear B, and the Phoenician syllabary—shared a common function. They were all used almost Powell, Homer and the Origin, 119‐86; idem, “Why was the Greek Alphabet invented: The Epigraphical Evidence,” Classical Antiquity 8.2 (Oct. 1989): 321‐50. 15 Idem, Homer and the Origin, 236‐37. 14
exclusively in administrative or commercial accounting. The palace‐centered economy of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations was structured around a highly developed administrative system which recorded the incoming commodities into the palaces and the distribution of goods in the surrounding areas.16 Hence the bureaucracy of the Minoan palaces could not have been achieved without the development of a script, which made possible the palace bookkeeping. Surviving inscriptions in Linear A,17 a script that developed out of the linear pictographic in Crete in the second millennium BC, reveal the explicit use of this script in recording lists of objects, commodities, and personnel.18 Similarly, the majority of the surviving inscriptions in Linear B,19 the official script of Mycenaean palaces in the second half of the second millennium BC, include lists of commodities and accounts and record the incoming and the sending out of commodities.20 The exclusive use of Linear A and B in the Minoan and Mycenaean palace administrative accounting can also be attested by the complete disappearance of the use of these scripts after the destruction of the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces. The destruction of Knossos, the central palace of Minoan civilization, in 1380 BC, and the burning of the Minoan palace of Pylos were followed by the complete disappearance of Linear A. Accordingly, the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces obliterated Linear B. Thus the development of Linear A and B was exclusively associated with the development of the Minoan and Mycenaean palace bureaucracies. When the palaces—and with them the need 16 For the palace‐centered economy of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations see D. B. Small, “Handmade Burnished Ware and Prehistoric Aegean Economics: An Argument for Indigenous Appearance,” Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3.1 (1990): 3‐25. 17 Linear writing was a form of writing using linear designs or non‐recognizable pictures as signs. 18 Stroud, “Art of Writing.” 106. 19 Linear B was a linear writing “developed out of Linear A with which it shares a large proportion of its signs. It employs 90 signs to represent the Greek vowels and combinations of a consonant and a vowel.” Stroud, “Art of Writing,” 108. 20 Ibid., 109.
for administrative accounting—were destroyed, the use of these scripts seized to exist: Literacy ended when the [Minoan and Mycenaean] palaces and all that went with them, particularly [when] account‐ keeping…ended. It probably disappeared almost overnight.21
Whereas the Minoan and Mycenaean economies depended upon the palace bureaucracies, and the administrative accounting was the work of few official who knew the existing scripts, Phoenician economy was developed around the commercial activities of individual traders. In the absence of a central administrative bureaucracy, the individual traders were responsible for the recording of their personal transactions and the keeping of their accounts. This increased the number of people involved in accounting and, accordingly, the number of people who should know how to use a script. The Phoenician script, which developed during a period of increasing Phoenician involvement in commercial transactions in the Mediterranean, was simpler in its use than the complex Minoan and Mycenaean scripts. This would have enabled more individuals to learn and employ the West Semitic script, making possible the process of bookkeeping and the indication of ownership by the Phoenician traders. The Hellenic archaic economies were developed along the same lines. In the absence of palace bureaucracies, after the destruction of the palace‐centered economies and the disappearance of commercial activities and of writing, patterns of exchange reemerged in the late Dark and early archaic Hellas, when individuals took the initiative to trade. This brought the need for the development of a script that would facilitate transactions made by individual traders. Since the Mediterranean trade routes in the ninth and eighth centuries S. Dow, The Cambridge Ancient History II. 1 3rd ed. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1973) 605.
21
were primarily controlled by Phoenician traders,22 it was inevitable that the traders from Hellas would come into contact both with Phoenicians and eventually with their script. It was also inevitable that the Hellenic traders or craftsmen, who came to know the functions of the Phoenician script and borrowed its sings, would also adopt its functions in commercial activities. The borrowing of the Phoenician script by traders of craftsmen from Hellas has long been established both by the surviving ancient sources and by studies of linguists and historians.23 Meanwhile, the majority of scholars agree that the adaption occurred in the late ninth or early eighth century BC.24 Scholars also agree that the actual place of the adoption had to be a commercial center, where Hellenes and Phoenicians intermingled. Among the many suggestions referring to the place of adoption of the Phoenician signs by the Hellenes and the development of the alphabet most possible are the islands of Rhodes, Crete, and Cyprus and the trading colony at al‐Mina in north Syria. However, recent archaeological evidence suggests that Cyprus, an island situated on the East‐West Mediterranean trade routes and one of the major grading centers in the Mediterranean world in the ninth and eighth centuries BC, should be considered as the actual place of the adaption by visiting traders from Hellas, who created the alphabet in order to facilitate their mercantile transactions. This process presupposes Phoenician and Hellenic coexistence in the place of the initial adaption and knowledge of the Hellenic population of the Phoenician script, so that they would have explained its use to the visiting traders from S. Sherratt & A. Sherratt, “The Growth of the Mediterranean Economy in the Early First Millennium BC,’ World Archaeology 24.3 (1992): 361‐69. 23 Herodotus 5.58, Nonnos 4.259‐64; F. Cross, “The Origin and Early Evolution of the Alphabet.” Eretz‐Israel 8 (1967): 8‐24; L. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1961) 5‐12; Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Alphabet, 13; Stroud, “Art of Writing,’ 110‐11; Havelock, The Literate Revolution in Greece, 187. 24 Stroud, “Art of Writing,” 114‐15; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 18‐20. 22
Hellas. Archaeological excavations testify to the existence of both Hellenic and Phoenician settlements on Cyprus. The Hellenic settlements date back as early as the Bronze Age, while Phoenician settlements on the island date to as early as the ninth century BC. These can be attested by the recent findings of a late eleventh‐ century BC bilingual, Cypriot syllabary25 and an early ninth‐century BC bilingual, Cypriot‐Phoenician inscription on Cyprus.26 Meanwhile, recent excavations on the island have revealed a Phoenician settlement, dated to the ninth century BC.27 During the period of the adaption, Hellenes, especially Euboeans, were in close contact with Cyprus and its Hellenic and Phoenician settlements. In addition to this, it is important to note that in the Hellenic Cypriot syllabary there were signs for the designation of vowels, indicating how the idea of an exclusively phonetic script could have been achieved. Therefore, the Hellenic population of Cyprus, who knew both the Cypriot and Phoenician scripts, taught visiting Hellenes both the Phoenician script and its mercantile function as well as the employment of phonetic elements in writing. Then, the visiting Hellenes, adapting the Phoenician sings in their new form as exclusively phonetic elements, created the alphabet and spread it along their travels: The recent discovery of a Cypriot syllabic inscription of the later eleventh century at Palaipaphos (Kouklia) goes some way to closing the gap that exists between the syllabaries of the Bronze Age and of the developed Iron Age. Greek speakers arriving in the ninth or eighth century at Paphos or Salamis, or even Kition, Amathous or Kourion, would see writing and be told, in Greek, of its uses; such writing would be both syllabic Greek and quasisyllabic Phoenician. The fact that the visiting Greeks then adopted the Phoenician signs may be explained by the fact that
Thy Cypriot script was a Hellenic syllabary similar to the linear syllabic scripts of the Minoan and Mycenaeans. 26 Johnston, “The Extent and Use of Literacy,” 66; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 13. 27 Johnston, “The Extent and Use of Literacy,” 66; L. Jeffery, Local Scripts, 8. 25
they had more dynamic dealings with the easterners than with the indigenous Greek‐speaking population.28
The patterns of the further transmission of this new phonetic script in the eighth century BC indicate that these visiting Hellenes were traders from Euboea, one of the most flourishing Hellenic regions and founder of the majority of the Hellenic colonies in the eighth and early seventh centuries BC. In addition to that, its fast spread along the established trade routes of this period reveals its important mercantile role in the eighth century BC patterns of exchange in the Mediterranean world. Lefkandi, a prominent city on Euboea in the eighth century BC, is the place where the earliest alphabetic inscription has been found, dated to ca. 775BC.29 On Naxos, an eighth‐century BC Euboean colony, which held strong trade connections with the rest of the Cyclades as well as with Cyprus and with the Phoenician Levant, archaeological excavations have brought into light an inscribed sherd, dated to ca. 770 BC.30 Furthermore, Pithekoussai, colony of two Euboean cities—Khalkis and Eretria—and situated on the modern island of Ischia in the bay of Naples, has produced many inscriptions on pottery, dated to ca. 750 BC. Among these findings there was also the famous ‘cup of Nestor’ (ca. 740 BC), mentioned in the Iliad,31 which has a three‐line metrical inscription on it similar to that described in the Iliad.32 Similarly, Attica and the city of Athens, which had close cultural and commercial ties with Euboea, have produced a great majority of the early surviving inscriptions, among which the famous
Johnston, «The Extent and Use of Literacy,” 66. M. Popham, L. Sackett, &P. Themelis, eds., Lefkandi I: The Iron Age in the British School at Athens Suppl. 11 (1978‐80): 1‐2. 30 B. Lambrinoudakes, “Anaskaphe Naxou,” Praktica (1981): 293‐95. 31 Homer Iliad 11.631‐41. 32 Powell, Homer and the Origin, 15; Snodgrass, Dark Age 78; A. Graham, The Cambridge Ancient History III.3 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 99‐100. 28 29
‘Dipylon Oinochoe’ dated to ca. 740 BC.33 Finally, at Cumae, a city on the Italic mainland across the bay of Naples, settled by Euboeans, Boeotians, and colonists from Pithekoussai, excavations have revealed the earliest examples of Etruscan writing, dated to ca. 700BC.34 These alphabetic inscriptions indicate how the Etruscans, the native population of Italy, who traded with the Hellenic settlers, borrowed the Hellenic alphabet and later bequeathed it to the Romans.35 Similarly, Aeolians from Cumae transmitted the alphabet to the Phrygians on the coast of Asia Minor through trade.36 Therefore, all these pieces of evidence indicate the explicit association of Euboea and Euboean traders with the adaption and transmission of the alphabet along the established trade routes in the eighth century BC. This also implies that since the alphabet was developed and transmitted by traders, it would have initially been employed by them for the facilitation of their mercantile activities in this period. The last evidence that implicitly reveals the original mercantile function of the alphabet comes from the nature of the earliest surviving alphabetic inscriptions. It has been argued, as stated in the early pages of this paper, that the metrical character of a significant part of the earliest inscriptions signifies that alphabetization was the original function of oral composition, and thus that the alphabet was formed to record oral poetry.37 In order to support this theory, Powell has done a systematic study of a great part of the surviving epigraphical evidence.38
Coldstream, Geometric Pottery, 358; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 15. Jeffery, Local Scripts, 236‐37; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 15. 35 Powell, Homer and the Origin, 16‐17. 36 Ibid. 37 See pp. 3‐6 above. 38 Powell, “Why was the Greek Alphabet Invented,” 323‐48; idem, Homer and the Origin, 164. 33 34
Powell’s study ahs shown that many of the early inscriptions were indeed written in hexametric verse—among which are the ‘cup of Nestor’ from Pithekoussai and the ‘Dipylon Oinochoe’ from Athens: I am the cup of Nestor, a joy to drink from. Whoever drinks this cup straightway that man the desire of beautiful‐crowned Aphrodite will seize.39
Whoever of all the dancers now dances most friskily…of him this…40
Nevertheless, the majority of the earliest epigraphical evidence records the writing of isolated letters, names or parts of names as well as the writing of phrases which indicate ownership or the agent of manufacture.41 Thus single names and phrases such as “I or this belong(s) to X” or “X made me’ or “I am” plus a noun in the genitive—another indication of ownership—make the majority of the surviving epigraphical evidence.42 Even the two metrical inscriptions stated above do contain also phrases which indicate ownership. The phrase “I am the cup of Nestor…” belongs in the inscriptions of the form “I am’ plus a noun in the genitive, whereas the indication ‘…of him this…” on the ‘Dipylon Oinochoe’ belongs in the inscriptions of the form “I or this belong(s) to X.” On the other hand, metrical inscriptions seem to come after the second half of the eighth century BC, whereas the inscriptions from the first half of the eighth century BC indicate almost exclusively ownership. The remaining epigraphical evidence, which states either the name of a deity or an offering to a god, or records a curse, indicates, whether implicitly or explicitly, property. Inscriptions Jeffery, Local Scripts, 236; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 164. Jeffery, Local Scripts, 15‐16, 68, 76; Powell, Homer and the Origin, 159. 41 R. Thomas, Key Themes in Ancient History; Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 58‐59; Johnston, ‘The Extent and Use of Literacy,” 63, 67. 42 Jeffery, Local Scripts, 238; Thomas, Literacy and Orality, 58‐59. 39 40
that state some form of the word god indicate divine property; the offerings, which are in the form “X dedicated this to y (god),” indicate the initial owner and the final receptor. Thus both forms declare ownership—human or divine—and signify a type of exchange. Finally, inscriptions that state a curse serve as a protection of property: “I am the lekythos of Tateie; may whoever steals me be blind”.43 Therefore, the majority of the earliest surviving epigraphical evidence reveals preoccupation with the indication of ownership either as an attempt to label property or as a form of advertisement, or as a way to protect property. Though none of these forms of writing indicate in an explicit manner the mercantile original function of the alphabet, the inscriptions that indicate ownership do manifest the close association of the alphabet with patterns of exchange since exchange itself presupposes ownership. Moreover the labeling, advertising, and protection or ownership facilitates exchange. The absence of early inscriptions with records of commodities or records of accounting may appear as an indication of the non‐mercantile function of the alphabet. However, reviewing the surviving Linear A and B inscriptions and examining the nature of the employed writing material in the eighth century BC reveals that the absence of such inscriptions does not necessarily indicate that they never existed. The surviving Linear A and Linear B Bronze Age inscriptions, whose scripts were employed almost exclusively to record the administrative accounting of the Minoan and Mycenaean palace‐centered bureaucracies, were inscribed on unbaked clay.44 This indicates that there was no intention from the part of the palace administrative officials to preserve these tablets. On the other hand, the Stroud, “Art of Writing,’ 103. Stroud, “Art of Writing,” 109.
43 44
fact that these inscriptions were finally preserved was accidental. The tablets that have survived down to us were found in Bronze Age sites which had been destroyed by fire—palace of Pylos,45 a fact that led to their accidental preservation since the clay was baked by the fire. Furthermore, the surviving tablets were dated by months, not by years.46 These pieces of evidence, coupled with the fact that all of the transactions recorded on them had taken place in the current year,47 suggest that records of transactions and lists of administrative book‐keeping were kept from one month to one year at the most and then were destroyed. Therefore, if the complex palace bureaucracies were destroying their accounts after the passing of a year, the individual traders of the archaic period would have preserved theirs for the same period of time or, more possible, for less than a year. Scholars have also suggested that in the late Dark and early Archaic Ages, since papyrus was hard to get,48 informal writing was inscribed on waxed tablets and potsherds,49 whereas more formal writing was inscribed on pottery and stone. Archaeological evidence has revealed that waxed tablets were indeed used by the Etruscans and Phoenicians in the seventh century BC.50 Thus, if there was no intention by the individual traders to preserve their accounts for more than a year, their accounts would have been inscribed on perishable material such as waxed tablets and potsherds, which may explain the absence of records and accounts. Finally, it should also be kept in mind that what archaeological excavation has revealed throughout the years does not necessarily
Ibid., 103, 109. Ibid., 109. 47 Ibid. 48 Herodotus 5.58. 49 Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece, 67. 50 Ibid. 45 46
form a complete list of all the alphabetic inscriptions during the examined period. Although further findings may offer additional information about the original function of the alphabet and may also help to clear the controversies, the existing material indicates that the Hellenic alphabet was initially formed in order to facilitate exchange. Orality, memorization, and thus a need of mnemonic devices characterized all ancient societies, not only Hellas. Thus memorization could not have been responsible for the development of the Hellenic alphabet. On the other hand, the Cypriot syllabary designated vowels long before the alphabet did. Hence, if the alphabet was designed to record epic poetry, which presupposes the creation of vowels, the Hellenes would have done so by modifying the Cypriot syllabary. Finally, the origins of the alphabet and the function of its forerunners in administrative and commercial accounting as well as its patterns of transmission along the trade routes of the eighth century BC and its original function in the labeling, advertising, and protecting property suggest that the alphabet was formed in order to facilitate exchange in the growing commercial transactions in the eighth‐century BC Mediterranean world.
