[Inscriptions and manuscripts. Epigraphy and palaeography. The development of scripts and script styles. Semitic languages and scripts. The rise of the Semitic script Background - Sumerian cuneiform writing. Egyptian hieroglyphic scripts. The Hittite "hieroglyphic" scripts. The Cretan scripts. Undeciphered scripts in Syria-Palestine. The beginnings of the Alphabet. The South Semitic scripts. The West Semitic Scripts - The Phoenician script. The Hebrew script. The Aramaic script. Comparative aspects of the Phoenician, Hebrew and Aramaic scripts. The scripts of Israel's neighbours. The change from Hebrew to Jewish script. The development of Later Aramaic offshoots Aramaic writing in the Iranian world. The Aramaic scripts in the East - The South Mesopotamian branch. The North Mesopotamian branch. The Palmyrene-Syriac branch. The Nabatean script and the rise of Arabic script. The Jewish script. The antiquity of the Greek Alphabet]

Abbrev. - p.: 187; Ill. - p.: 189-202; Index - p.: 203-211.