Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

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

Page 466

THE GREEK ALPHABET AND ITS OFFSHOOTS 465
Pamphylian Alphabet Pamphylia, situated on the low-lying coast of south-west Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, was inhabited by a mixture of peoples who pushed their way in from outside.
The Pamphylians employed an alphabet (Fig. 204) of Greek origin; only one long inscription and some coins are extant. At a later period the Pamphylians used a mixed Greek-Aramaic script.
Lydian Alphabet The state of Lydia, occupying the west coast of Asia Minor, between Mysia in the north and Caria in the south, was the strongest in Asia Minor after the fall of the Phrygian kingdom, particularly during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Croesus, the last and most renowned Lydian king, fell into the hands of Cyrus, king of Persia, in 546 B.C.
Carian
Cretan
Lycian
Cypriote
Lycian Cretan LAAM
XOX
MOK
HT
K-, *)16=1 11- 111 X X X-MU Y Y Y Y Yo
FH HI
VV
0
IXX
XX
Cypriote
X X X-Mu MM-
MM =ML
Fig. 207-Lycian and Carian signs compared with Cretan signs (1) and
Cypriote syllables (2-3)
The Lydians had an ancient civilization. Whence they may have come cannot as yet be determined. Many modern scholars have found affinities between the Lydians and the Etruscans, but perhaps the only affinity between the Lydian and the Etruscan languages is the fact that both of them are more or less still undeciphered. It seems, however, that Lydian was a non-Indo-European speech, although it had some grammatical affinities with the Indo-European languages.
Over 50 Lydian inscriptions have been discovered; 36 of them have been found in the course of the American excavations of 1910-13 at Sardes (the indigenous term was Start), the ancient capital of Lydia. The datable inscriptions belong to the fourth century B.C., but others may belong to the fifth century or perhaps earlier. According to Strabo
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