Near the conclusion of the 2005 excavation season at Tel Zayit in Israel, the excavators recovered a large stone bearing an incised, two-line inscription. The special importance of the stone derives not only from its archaic alphabetic text (a twenty-two-letter Abecedary), but also from its well-defined archaeological context in a structure dating securely to the tenth century BCE. This lecture will focus on the long-term historical trends, particularly in Egypt, that gave rise to the development of a linear alphabet that grew out of but dramatically simplified older, pictographic writing. The discussion will chart the long development of the new, alphabetic writing system across the second millennium BCE. The Tel Zayit Abecedary will be shown to represent the linear alphabetic script of central and southern Canaan at the beginning of the first millennium BCE, a transitional script that developed from the Phoenician tradition of the early Iron Age and anticipated the distinctive features of the mature Hebrew national script.

After early studies at the University of Virginia and in Jerusalem, followed by an MA at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Ron Tappy studied at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago in 1985, then moved to Harvard for graduate research leading in 1990 to his PhD there in Near Eastern languages and civilization. His focus on Semitic languages Syro-Palestinian archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern History led to appointments at Michigan, Westmont College and in 1997 Pittsburgh, where he is now Professor of Bible and Archaeology Director of the Kelso Museum

of Near Eastern Archaeology and Director of the excavations at Tell Zayit (Zeitah) in Israel. This work is affiliated with ASOR and the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. Prior to this he built his 30 years of field experience in a Tombs Survey project in Jerusalem, and at Tel Haror and Ashkelon. He is visiting UNE by courtesy of the Australian Institute of Archaeology in Melbourne. Professor Tappy’s interests focus on the cultural, political and economic situation of Iron Age Israel and other societies with which Israel interacted. He has published three major books including The archaeology of Israelite Samaria, vol. 1. Early Iron Age through the Ninth Century BCE (Harvard Semitic Studies 44; Atlanta, 1992); vol. 2. The Eighth Centry BCE (Harvard Semitic Studies 50; Winona Lake, 2001); and (ed. with P.K. McCarter), Literate culture and tenth-century Canaan. The Tel Zayit Abecedary in context (Winona lake, 2008).

Friday 15 May 2015, at 9.30 am
in Arts Faculty Building Lecture Theatre 3

ALL WELCOME

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