Historia pisma klinowego w południowym Kanaanie

Krzysztof J. Baranowski

An overview of artifacts with cuneiform inscriptions from the Land of Israel shows that the use of cuneiform script in this regions falls into two neatly distinguishable periods, each having own characteristics. The cuneiform tradition of southern Canaan originated from contacts between Hazor and Mari. Writing was adopted in the Old Babylonian period and used for administration and epistolary exchange. From the beginning, cuneiform script was taught locally and transmitted in families, from one generation to another, as was the case with other professions. In the Late Bronze Age, the local practice of writing expanded and participated in a larger western peripheral stream of cuneiform tradition. Its demise was the result of political and cultural changes which occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Cuneiform writing appeared again in the Land of Israel with Assyrian occupation at the end of the eight cent. B.C.E. In contrast to the Late Bronze Age, in the Neo-Assyrian period cuneiform writing was not adopted by the indigenous population nor taught locally, as the lack of scholarly texts indicates. From this period, only two categories of documents survive: royal stele and administrative tablets. Several cuneiform artifacts from the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods are difficult to interpret. Some of them had to be brought from abroad; others may testify to occasional use of cuneiform writing.