Aramaic square script
Aramaic square script is the 22-letter consonantal alphabet script that developed during the rule of the Achaemenid empire to write the Aramaic language. It is loosely called "square" because its letters can be fit into the shape of a square.
The earliest known examples of square script are the Elephantine papyri and ostraca, a cache of Jewish and non-Jewish documents from the 5th to 4th centuries BCE. By the first centuries CE, Jews had begun to use square script or "ktav Ashuri" for all purposes, in both Hebrew and Aramaic. It it still the main script used for Modern Hebrew and other Jewish languages, and also survives in the square Maalouli alphabet used for Western Neo-Aramaic.
Background
The Neo-Assyrian empire adopted use of the Aramaic language and early Aramaic script alongside their native Akkadian language after conquering the Aramaean city-states and kingdoms in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. The script then used was simpler than their own cuneiform script, and first adopted in the provinces where Aramaic was widely spoken and then eventually in Assyria itself. Aramaic "square script", so called because the letters fit into the shape a square, is first known from the Elephantine papyri.File:Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum, BerlinFile:4q246-manuscript.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Son of God manuscript, one of the Qumran scrolls written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic using square scriptThe Hebrew Bible was originally written using the Phoenician alphabet script. Possibly as early as the late Persian or the Hellenistic Period, Jewish scribes began using square script to write Hebrew, and this practice was in widespread use by the 3rd century BCE. Some scholars attribute this shift to the influence of the Babylonian exile where Aramaic was also the language of daily life.
File:Syrian-Aramean towns in Western Neo-Aramaic.jpg|"Damascus", the capital of Syria written in Western neo-Aramaic square script at top, followed by the names of Syrian towns that continue to speak and write Western neo-Aramaic dialects: Maaloula, Al-Sarkha, and Jubb'adin|thumb|upright
The Talmud refers to square script as k'tav ashuri, distinguishing it from Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew script Ktav 'Ivri.
Today, only the Samaritans continue to use a form of Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew for their written language.
Texts
Study of the early development of the square Aramaic script, is important to categorizing, analyzing and dating the many thousands of Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions made in the Middle Aramaic period, including those of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is a great deal of debate among paleographists over the terminology and typologies to be used in classifying the various texts that is complicated by the lack of definitively dated texts outside of this corpus from the late Hellenistic to early Roman periods.Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written in square script, including both Hebrew and Aramaic texts. However, several Hebrew manuscripts use Paleo-Hebrew for the Tetragrammaton, and one Aramaic manuscript uses Paleo-Hebrew for "Elohekha".
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Mandaic differ only in script: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic uses square script.
Immanuel Tremellius' 16th-century edition of the Peshitta used square script, as did Chaim Heller's 1927-1929 edition.
Magic bowl inscriptions
Square script was used to inscribe incantation bowls in various languages, and while many of these clearly reflect a Jewish religious or cultural milieu, there are several that do not.Some are written in an Aramaic koine language with in some cases a Mandaic context and prototype. Several others use Aramaic square script for expression in Standard Literary Babylonian Aramaic, and display remarkable syncretism, with closing formula banning "the evil elements in the name of your God Sadday, YHWH, Jesus, Ruha Qaddista". Ruha Qaddista is a feminized form for the Holy Spirit, reflecting the early Eastern churches transmission of Mesopotamian legacies which used qadistu as an epitaph of the goddess Ishtar.