When was writing developed in the ancient world? How is it we still use some of the same letters in our alphabet that the Canaanites did? What’s the difference between script and language? How did scholars crack the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 19th century? How much writing survives from the ancient Israelites outside of the Bible? Writing samples from the ancient world are priceless sources of information, and one of the key windows through which archaeologists and historians look to be able to reconstruct the past. Join biblical scholar and archaeologist Nate Ramsayer for a series on how writing was invented and passed between ancient Near Eastern cultures. Come learn about the differences between pictographic, cuneiform, and alphabetic writing, and how scholars are able to make sense of them, as well as what important inscriptions still survive from thousands of years ago!

Lecture topics in this course:

1. The Paleographic Record (How do scholars make sense of ancient scripts, and how is handwriting used to date archaeological remains?)
2. Where Did Ancient Writing Come From? (An exploration of the origins of pictographic writing, and how it evolved into syllabic cuneiform languages in Mesopotamia)
3. Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs (How many centuries did Egyptian writing last? A look at how the Egyptians came up with such a unique system of symbols for their language, and how Egyptologists are able to make sense of them)
4. A History of the Alphabet (An exploration of the origins of our modern-day alphabet, tracing its path from early proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, and developing into the standard Phoenician alphabet, which was passed through several Mediterranean cultures)
5. Ancient Biblical Inscriptions (How many examples of writing still exist from ancient Israel and Judah? What are some of the most famous inscriptions that survive from this biblical period?)