Cadmean Letters

Tables, Charts, and Maps



Preface and Acknowledgments



1. Historiography of Alphabetic Transmission from the Levant to the Aegean



From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century



Nineteenth Century: Rivalry between the Ancient and Aryan Models



Early Twentieth Century: The Development of the Extreme Aryan Model



Mid Twentieth Century: The Debate about the Date of the Ahiram Inscription



Recent Studies



2. Difficulties with the Conventional Dating of Transmission to the Eleventh of Ninth Centuries BC



Where in the Levant Did the Western Alphabets Originate?



Problems in the Aegean



Problems with Other Mediterranean Alphabets



Anatolian Alphabets



Etruscan Alphabet



Messapic Alphabet



Spanish Syllabaries



Numidian and Tifineh Alphabets



3. A New Scheme of Alphabetic Transmission



Disadvantages of Wave Model and Higher Chronology



Lack of Simplicity



Lack of Attestation



Biographic Societies



Cypriot Syllabary



Application of New Proposal



Ugaritic and South Semitic Alphabets



Minean-Sabean Alphabet



Thamudic Alphabet



Nature of the Alphabet of Primary Transmission



4. The Spanish Syllabaries



5. The Greek Alphabets



6. Conclusion



Appendix



Bibliography



Index of Authorities