Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 188

QUASI - ALPHABETIC SCRIPTS
187 (5) six symbols for the consonants d and m, i.e. (a) pure consonant or consonant + short a; (b) consonant + u; (c) consonant + i.
Nasals preceding consonants were omitted. The symbols represented only vowels or open syllables beginning with a simple consonant. The direction of writing was from left to right.
Origin and End
The Persian cuneiform script was probably not a natural development from the cuneiform writing, but an artificial creation based on the neoBabylonian cuneiforms; the creation of a quasi-alphabetic system of writing
separation
1(a)
in(a)
Ora)
sla)
ha)
(a)
Lydiya
daly
province (rwo forma Lumi "country"
ba)
Fig. 96—The Early Persian character was obviously suggested by the already widely circulating Aramaic alphabet. It is rightly argued that the script was drawn up on official order.
Some scholars attribute the invention of the early Persian script to Cyrus the Great (about 550-529 B.c.). This theory is mainly based on three brief inscriptions of Cyrus (this is certainly not-as some scholars thought--"Cyrus the younger," a son of Darius II), found at Mashad-iMurghab (Pasargada), about thirty miles east of Persepolis. Others consider Darius the Great (521-486 B.C.) as the inventor of this script, this opinion being based mainly on a passage in the famous Bihistun