Hebrew alphabets

The big scroll project I was doing back in 2009 involved a script of Hebrew that is not the one that is in use today by Biblical scholars or the Israeli nation.

It is called Paleo-Hebrew and it was employed from around 1200-500 B.C. It underwent a lot of changes during that time, but any script that is strictly Hebrew in that span would be considered Paleo-Hebrew.

It is said to be evolved from Phoenecian, which in turn evolved from Ugaritic. The origins of Ugaritic are clearly Mesopotamian. However, a text in the Sinai peninsula contained a proto-Canaanite script, which could indicate a different story.

Whatever the case, I find the Paleo-Hebrew script beautiful and love working with it. To the right you can see the Tel-Dan stele's inscription. It is purported to contain the earliest (and only) extra-biblical reference to the "house of David" (bet David).

How about Paleo-Hebrew on papyrus? Unfortunately, we do not have many examples. The best renderings of Paleo-Hebrew are found on stone. There are a few extant texts on papyrus, the most notable being the inclusion of the tetragrammaton (YHWH, the holy name of God) in Masoretic Hebrew texts and even Greek.

Despite the scanty evidence, however, I decided to move forward with my papyrus scroll written in Paleo-Hebrew, confident that some ancient scribe must have written on sheets of papyrus in this fantastic script in days gone by.