________________
160
THE ALPHABET
bronze-tablet contains on its verso a sign in the shape of the numeral 1, repeated seven times, and one spatula contains a similar sign repeated four times. Groups of two signs are very frequent. About 50 symbols are, more or less, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics; others may find parallels in the scripts of Crete, Cyprus, Indus Valley, Sinai or Canaan. Dunand believes that the 114 symbols do not constitute the totality
(a)
(6)
0770
O +
11111
#124 RTER O TATIA 4
220_As t
A+ A+
XTAY 4 A172 EXTIRLA 2
70 INTE » X÷A
Fig. 83-1-2, Spatulae inscribed in the pseudo-hieroglyphic syllabary of Byblos (a, obverse; b, reverse)
of the system, which according to him was probably neither an alphabet nor a syllabary, nor an ideographic script, but a semi-ideographic and semiphonetic writing, perhaps also including determinatives, or a syllabic polyphonic system like the later cuneiform script, in which the scribe could represent the same sounds by various signs.
