Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions
The Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, also known as Northwest Semitic inscriptions, are the primary extra-Biblical sources for understanding of the societies and histories of Phoenicia, the Israelites, and the Arameans, which includes groups within the Northwest Semitic languages. Northwest Semitic contains the Aramaic and Canaanite languages; the latter groups includes Phoenician—Punic, the Ammonite language, and Hebrew.
Semitic inscriptions may occur on stone slabs, ostraca, and ornaments and range from simple names to full texts.
The oldest inscriptions form a dialect continuum that includes Canaanite languages and Aramaic, exemplified by writings which scholars have struggled to fit into either category, such as the Stele of Zakkur and the Deir Alla inscription.
Languages
The Old Aramaic period saw increased production and dispersal of inscriptions — not because the Arameans formed a dominant empire, but because their language was increasingly adopted as a regional lingua franca. Their language was adopted as an international language of diplomacy, particularly in the late Neo-Assyrian Empire when it spread throughout the Near East—including Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first known Aramaic inscription was the Carpentras Stele, found in southern France in 1704; it was considered to be Phoenician text at the time.Only 10,000 inscriptions in Phoenician-Punic, a Canaanite language, are known, such that "Phoenician probably remains the worst transmitted and least known of all Semitic languages." The only other substantial source for Phoenician-Punic are the excerpts in Poenulus, a play written by the Roman writer Plautus. Within the corpus of inscriptions only 668 words have been attested, including 321 hapax legomena, per Wolfgang Röllig's analysis in 1983. This compares to the Bible's 7,000–8,000 words and 1,500 hapax legomena, in Biblical Hebrew. The first published Phoenician-Punic inscription was from the Cippi of Melqart, found in 1694 in Malta; the first published such inscription from the Phoenician "homeland" was the Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II published in 1855.
Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions in Ancient Hebrew, another Canaanite language, are known, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The first detailed Ancient Hebrew inscription published was the Royal Steward inscription, found in 1870.
List of notable inscriptions
The inscriptions written in ancient Northwest Semitic script have been catalogued into multiple corpora over the last two centuries. The primary corpora to have been produced are as follows:- : assessed 13 inscriptions
- Wilhelm Gesenius, Scripturae Linguaeque Phoeniciae : only 80 inscriptions and 60 coins were known in the entire Phoenicio-Punic corpus
- : The first study of Phoenician grammar, listed 332 texts known at the time
- CIS: Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum ; the first section is focused on Phoenician-Punic inscriptions
- NE: Mark Lidzbarski, : Handbuch der Nordsemitischen Epigraphik
- * KI:
- NSI: George Albert Cooke :
- KAI: Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften, considered the "gold standard" for the last fifty years
- TSSI: Volume III. Phoenician Inscriptions, Including Inscriptions in the Mixed Dialect of Arslan Tash
- TAD: Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt