When were the Byblos inscriptions written?
Three answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Three answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Three are still possible.
Why it matters
Dunand dated the texts to the nineteenth to eighteenth centuries BC from their context and the hieratic look of the signs; Mendenhall and Hoch argued for an Old Kingdom or Early Bronze Age origin from the age of the closest Egyptian parallels; Sass finds that no object has a secure stratigraphic context and that the inscriptions share word dividers, framing and sign forms with ninth-century Byblian alphabetic texts[1][2][3][4]. The one fixed point is a spatula with Byblos signs under a tenth-century Phoenician inscription, which gives only a lower bound[4].
Answers 3
Next steps 1
1
Read Sass 2019 in full and tabulate, object by object, what Dunand recorded of each find context in Byblia Grammata and the 1978 note, to see which if any has a usable stratigraphic association.
~6 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
History
- Maurice Dunand: dunand's excavation context and the hieratic character of the signs led him to a nineteenth to eighteenth century BC…For: Middle Bronze Age, c. 1900-1600 BC (Dunand)
- George E. Mendenhall: hoch finds the closest Egyptian parallels for the Byblos sign forms in Old Kingdom characters of about 2700 to 2200 BC.For: Early Bronze Age, c. 2400 BC or earlier (Mendenhall, Hoch)
- James E. Hoch: hoch finds the closest Egyptian parallels for the Byblos sign forms in Old Kingdom characters of about 2700 to 2200 BC.For: Early Bronze Age, c. 2400 BC or earlier (Mendenhall, Hoch)
- Juan-Pablo Vita: dunand's excavation context and the hieratic character of the signs led him to a nineteenth to eighteenth century BC…For: Middle Bronze Age, c. 1900-1600 BC (Dunand)
- Juan-Pablo Vita: a cylinder seal reported to name Akhenaten's daughters in Byblos signs would place a use of the script in the…Against: Iron Age, c. 900-830 BC (Sass)
- Benjamin Sass: none of the 13 to 16 inscribed objects has a secure stratigraphic context, so the Middle Bronze Age date rests on…Against: Middle Bronze Age, c. 1900-1600 BC (Dunand)
- Benjamin Sass: the pseudo-hieroglyphic objects share the spatula medium, word dividers, text framing and some sign forms with…For: Iron Age, c. 900-830 BC (Sass)
- Paolo Merlo: dunand's excavation context and the hieratic character of the signs led him to a nineteenth to eighteenth century BC…For: Middle Bronze Age, c. 1900-1600 BC (Dunand)
- Michael Mäder: a cylinder seal reported to name Akhenaten's daughters in Byblos signs would place a use of the script in the…Against: Iron Age, c. 900-830 BC (Sass)
- Session 1: raised the question, proposed three answers and found five results bearing on its answers