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CANAANITE BRANCH (3) The Carthaginian or Punic alphabet, with its secondary branch, the more cursive script termed neo-Punic, in two types, monumental and cursive, constitutes a story in itself. Fig. 123 shows some specimens of the different varieties. The last Punic inscriptions belong to the third century A.D. It is thus apparent that the Punic script was employed for some five centuries longer than the Phoenician.
The development of the Phænician alphabet in all its sub-divisions, including Punic and neo-Punic, and in all its forms, was, like that of the Early Hebrew and early Aramaic alphabets, purely external: the number and the phonetic value of the letters remained always the same. The direction of the lines, always horizontal, was constantly from right to left. The main distinctive characteristics of the Phænician scripts was that the letters became constantly longer and thinner while, as already mentioned, the Early Hebrew letters became increasingly thicker and shorter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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W. F. Albright, Archeology of Palestine and the Bible, 3rd ed., New York, 1935; The Role of the Canaanites in the History of Civilization, "STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF CULTURE," Menasha, Wisconsin, 1942; The Old Testament and the Canaanite Language and Literature, "CATHOLIC BIBLICAL. QUARTERLY," 1945,
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5. Yeivin, The History of the Jercish Script in Hebrew), Part 1, Jerusalem, 1938.
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H. Torczyner, The Lachish Letters. Lachish I (Tell Ed-Durueir). (The Wellcome Archæological Research Expedition to the Near East), Oxford University Press, London New York-Toronto, 1938.
