March 1, 2021 Journal article Open Access

Longacre, Drew

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{"DOI":"10.25592/uhhfdm.9156","abstract":"<p>Writing is an expression of culture and is subject to intercultural influences. In this&nbsp;comparative study, I argue that Egyptian and Judean Hebrew/Aramaic scripts from&nbsp;400 BCE&ndash;400 CE were heavily influenced by Greek and later Latin writing cultures,&nbsp;which explains many previously inexplicable phenomena. Jewish writers in the third&nbsp;century BCE adopted the Greek split-nibbed reed pen, which dramatically changed&nbsp;the appearance of Hebrew/Aramaic scripts. At the same time, the normal size for Hebrew/&nbsp;Aramaic scripts shrank considerably, the pen strokes became mostly monotone&nbsp;and unshaded, and the scripts became more rectilinear, angular, bilinear, and square.<br>\nEach of these features appears to be due to direct imitation of contemporary Greek&nbsp;formal writing. Beginning in the first century BCE, Hebrew/Aramaic writers began to&nbsp;decorate their formal scripts with separate ornamental strokes like those of contemporary&nbsp;Greek and Latin calligraphic scripts. And from the second or third century CE,<br>\nHebrew/Aramaic calligraphic scripts seem to be increasingly characterized by horizontal&nbsp;shading, parallel to the contemporary rise of Greek and Latin shaded scripts.&nbsp;Furthermore, in the late Roman period, the traditional Hieratic-derived Aramaic numeral&nbsp;system was replaced by an alphabetic numeral system under the influence of&nbsp;the Greek Milesian alphabetic numerals.</p>","author":[{"family":"Longacre, Drew"}],"container_title":"Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin","id":"9156","issue":"1","issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,1]]},"language":"eng","page":"7-50","title":"Comparative Hellenistic and Roman Manuscript Studies (CHRoMS): Script Interactions and Hebrew/Aramaic Writing Culture","type":"article-journal","version":"Online First","volume":"7"}