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SYLLABIC SYSTEMS OF WRITING
163 "These texts, discovered and published by M. M. Dunand, are couched in an unknown script, of more than 140 symbols of hieroglyphic appearance. Without the help of a bilingual and without even the help of a stroke indicating the separation of the words. M. Dhorme has succeeded in determining the syllabary of this unknown script, and in defining the language which it represents. This language is pure Phænician;
PAX AIS
Fig. 86–Stone inscription from Byblos
there is no connection between the objects represented by the signs and heir phonetic values. M. Dhorme translates one of the bronze tablets of Byblos. . . .
"This discovery is of outstanding interest for the history of writing, of the alphabet, and of the civilization of the Near East in the middle