1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:13,520 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and today 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: we're talking about a piece of history that touches most 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: people and probably most people that are listening to this podcast. 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: UH in English, yes, but it also touches many other languages, 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: and that is the Phoenician alphabet UH. And it actually UM. 8 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: I was inspired to research this a little bit because 9 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,520 Speaker 1: last time I was in Epcot and I was writing 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: Spaceship Earth, which for anyone who doesn't know that big 11 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: g d s sphere in the middle of the front 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,200 Speaker 1: of the park that's kind of their icon. There's actually 13 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: a ride in that. It's a very gentle and calm 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: but air conditioned, which is important, and you get to 15 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: sit down for a lot ride yes, through sort of 16 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: the history of man and how we've evolved communications and 17 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: our communication methods. And the ride broke down as we 18 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: were just adjacent to the Phoenician tradership and so for 19 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,560 Speaker 1: and it was a long and unusually long breakdown. So 20 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 1: for like fifteen to twenty minutes, I just kept hearing 21 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: over and over Dame Judy Dench saying, remember how easy 22 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: it was to learn your A, B c's. Thank the Phoenicians. 23 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: They invented them. So after you hear that a hundred times, 24 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: you start to think you should thank the Phoenicians and 25 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: do some research. And that is how we landed here, 26 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: sort of imagining you in a no TV and no 27 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: beer make home or something something moment inside of spaceship birds. Well, 28 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: to be fair, I really do love that ride, and 29 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: I love watching the animatronics, and I kind of enjoy it, 30 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: but it did sort of eventually bore into my brain 31 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: and make me want to do some more research. Um So, 32 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: just for a little background on the Phoenicians. Uh. Phoenicia 33 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: was situated on the eastern side of the Mediterraneans, so 34 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: along the coast of modern day Syria and Palestine and 35 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: including the land of modern day Lebanon. But they were 36 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,280 Speaker 1: pretty coastal. Their actual land wasn't very expansive, which is 37 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: likely why they turned to the sea and life as 38 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: merchants for most of their um income and sort of 39 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: well being. So while today the Phoenicians may be known 40 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,120 Speaker 1: most for their alphabet, they innovated in other ways as well. 41 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: And one of my favorites is, Uh, they knew how 42 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,640 Speaker 1: to make purple dye, which most people who have studied 43 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,519 Speaker 1: history at all know is kind of a huge deal. Um, 44 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: it's a big textile admanagement. They were actually known for 45 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:37,919 Speaker 1: making some pretty impressive textiles. And the earliest example of 46 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: their production of this so called royal purple, which is 47 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: a dye that was actually worth more than its way 48 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: in gold, was found in the excavations of the thirteenth 49 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:51,640 Speaker 1: century BC levels of um the Phoenician city of Surrepta 50 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: in Lebanon. And incidentally, uh, and related to this, we 51 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: don't really know what the Phoenicians called themselves. The name 52 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: is actually green in origin, and it's believed to signify 53 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: the color purple red that they were known for making. 54 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: Just kind of interesting. So the dye was so important 55 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:11,080 Speaker 1: they named the whole people after. It was a huge 56 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: part of their culture that that was one of the 57 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: things they had innovated. Some accounts even credit de Phinitions 58 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:20,080 Speaker 1: with the discovery of glassmaking, and I read a few 59 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: different versions of how that was discovered, which is why 60 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: I qualify as some accounts uh they are, I mean, 61 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: they did make glass, but whether they actually discovered it 62 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: or picked it up and then refined it. Some historians 63 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: argue about, yeah, I should have asked the boyfriend. Oh yeah, 64 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: because he's a pro itt um, yes at how these 65 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: things come to be, has a degree in glass science. Yeah, 66 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: ask him and we'll get back to that one. But 67 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: they were also really great shipmakers and sailors, and according 68 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: to legend, one of their greatest sort of accomplishments in 69 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: terms of um seafaring was at the request of the 70 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 1: Egyptian king Necho two and a circumvented or circumnavigated rather 71 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: Africa in six b C. Which is huge. I mean, 72 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: that's a long journey. And uh, most accounts suggest that 73 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: they actually stopped at one point and made land and 74 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: lived on the land for a little while and got 75 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: some crops going to sort of refill the boats. Yeah, 76 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: it seems like some sort of restocking would have been 77 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: necessary just for what it takes to support people on 78 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 1: a boat. Yeah. And in two thousand and eight there 79 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: was a reproduction built of a Phoenician ship and it 80 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: actually sailed the same course and that's like a twenty 81 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:38,279 Speaker 1: thousand mile voyage, So that's long, and it took that 82 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: modern vessel two years. Uh so presumably you would have 83 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,479 Speaker 1: run out of supplies in a two year period and 84 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: would have had to restock. UM. There are actually some 85 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: historians who suspect that the Phoenicians traveled all the way 86 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:57,680 Speaker 1: to North America, although that is argued in UM in 87 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: history circles controversial idea. Yeah, there's a March CNN article 88 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: about the possibility, and in it they interviewed geology professor 89 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: Dr Mark mcmanimum of Mount Holyoke College, and he mentions 90 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 1: that they're actually Phoenician coins that are inscribed with maps 91 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: of the Old and New Worlds, which supports this idea 92 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: that they did in fact make it to the America's 93 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: at some point. UM. And the same group that recreated 94 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: that UM circumnavigation of Africa is currently raising funds to 95 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: sail that same ship across the Atlantic and try to 96 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: see if that was truly possible, because unlike where they 97 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:36,480 Speaker 1: went around Africa and they could kind of pull in 98 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,799 Speaker 1: and stop, there's nowhere to pull in. There's no UM, 99 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: there's no rest stop between between there and and here. Yeah, 100 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: the idea of going they could find islands, but that 101 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 1: that's kind of a little bit of a long shot. Yeah. Well, 102 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: and the idea of going across the whole Atlantic Ocean 103 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: in a little tiny boat, it's kind of terrifying to me. 104 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: It's not so tiny. It's certainly not a cruise ships. Um. Yeah, 105 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: if I'm traveling across the whole Atlantic, I kind of 106 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: want there to be you know, fighting city lifeboats and 107 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,040 Speaker 1: and a safety drill before we leave about how to 108 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:17,119 Speaker 1: get into the life boats. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure 109 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: I haven't read a lot about this particular plan, but 110 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:23,200 Speaker 1: I'm sure they have support crew always at the ready 111 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,159 Speaker 1: because they are hooked up to the GPS and stuff. 112 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 1: They traded all over the Mediterranean and parts beyond, and 113 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,839 Speaker 1: their culture is recognized as the first real globalized business, 114 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. And about the alphabet, So, prior 115 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: to this alphabet, the Phoenicians were using a queformed script, 116 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: just like the rest of Mesopotamia was. The roots of 117 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: the Phoenician alphabet are in the fifteenth century BC and 118 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:53,719 Speaker 1: what's sometimes referred to as the Proto Canaanite or proto 119 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:58,719 Speaker 1: synetic alphabet. The earliest examples of Phoenician writing date back 120 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: to See and their inscriptions found in the city of Biblos, 121 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 1: and it is no accident that biblos is also the 122 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: root word for BiblioTech and bible and bibliography exactly all 123 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: of the book related words. Uh. If you were to 124 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: look at a linguistic family tree of alphabets, Phoenician would 125 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: be really close to the base. And because the Phoenicians 126 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: traded with so many other cultures, their form of written 127 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,200 Speaker 1: communications spread really quickly and really widely. Most other alphabets 128 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: can actually be traced back to the Phoenician alphabet. So 129 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: the direct descendants of it include Aramaic, Etruscan, Archaic, Greek, 130 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: Old Hebrew, and Proto Arabic. And there's also even some 131 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:47,440 Speaker 1: influence in Indian and East Asian language. Only consonants are 132 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: represented in the Phoenician alphabet. There are no vowels. This 133 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,800 Speaker 1: is also called an ab jod alphabet. It made me 134 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 1: think of when I was researching it, when you see 135 00:07:57,640 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: people's license plates that just of, you know, a very 136 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 1: reduced version of a word and you have to kind 137 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: of fill in the vowels. Because initially I was like, 138 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: how did that work? But that was kind of my 139 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 1: modern ticket into how that might function for old real 140 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: estate listings for the internet. When you only had so 141 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,720 Speaker 1: many columnentes in the newspaper. Uh, and there are actually 142 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: only twenty two letters, and those letters can be traced 143 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: back to hieroglyphs in many cases, so their form and 144 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:29,320 Speaker 1: even um. There's often in some historical accounts kind of 145 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: a flow chart of how like this word for ox 146 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:35,520 Speaker 1: turned into this shape, which turned into this letter which 147 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,600 Speaker 1: has similar sound or whatever. Um. So there it is. 148 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: It was born of these other things, but it filled 149 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 1: a void of sound based alphabet. Generally, Phoenician was written 150 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: from right to left, but in some instances it was 151 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,480 Speaker 1: written in a bustpheten style, which means that it would 152 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:57,120 Speaker 1: alternate direction once one line would be written from right 153 00:08:57,160 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: to left and the next from left to right. The 154 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: alternate direction would continue, so somebody reading the language could 155 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: read their way down a passage of text without ever 156 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: having to jump visually to the start of a new line, 157 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: which added child. I just wondered why that was not 158 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,559 Speaker 1: how we did it well. It has been tried, apparently, 159 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: but most mostly Phoenician, to the best of my knowledge, 160 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: does go from right to left, and you do have 161 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,320 Speaker 1: to do the jump, just like we do in our 162 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: left to right reading of English. There were also not 163 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:28,959 Speaker 1: normally spaces between words, which seems a little bit crazy, 164 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: I think to the modern mind. But there were sometimes 165 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: dots to distinguish words, and sometimes there were vertical slashes 166 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: like a vertical stroke. But eventually spaces did come into play, 167 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,079 Speaker 1: and by the sixth century BC, spaces were becoming more 168 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:47,839 Speaker 1: common than the dots are the vertical strokes to create 169 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:51,640 Speaker 1: word separation. The Phoenician numeral system was also written from 170 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,280 Speaker 1: right to left, and it bears a resemblance to the 171 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,920 Speaker 1: Roman numeral system. It combines symbols to create complex numbers 172 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:01,720 Speaker 1: a lot like for the New Worlds. Do Yeah. And 173 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: much of the Old Testament was originally written down using 174 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: the Phoenician alphabet because there weren't really any other options 175 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: in the way of a standardized writing system at the time. 176 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: That was an actual alphabet and not pictogram. So why 177 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: did the Phoenicians want to create an alphabet in the 178 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: first place. Here is a very short answer for this. 179 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:26,600 Speaker 1: Yes they were um they were trading. Roman scholar Pliny 180 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,080 Speaker 1: the Elder is credited with defining the Phoenicians as the 181 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,720 Speaker 1: first traveling salesman, and Pliny the Elder gets a little 182 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: bit of um a grain of salt with anything you read. 183 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: He was apparently given to exaggeration, and he was very 184 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: very pro Phoenician, like, he really admired that culture. But 185 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: it is pretty widely accepted that he was accurate in 186 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:49,680 Speaker 1: this characterization of them um because they were traveling all 187 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:53,520 Speaker 1: over the place and their entire culture was really based 188 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,440 Speaker 1: on trade. So, as we mentioned, they traveled all over 189 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: the Mediterranean and maybe even the globe. The goal of 190 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,040 Speaker 1: new alphabet was to create a system that would be 191 00:11:02,040 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: easy to learn and understand by their business associates. And 192 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,240 Speaker 1: before this written communication had been pretty pictogram based. It 193 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,520 Speaker 1: was so diversified that different societies could not share written 194 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:16,079 Speaker 1: information and have everyone know what the symbols meant. So 195 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: the Phoenicians found this way to break words down into 196 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: characters with different sounds that could be combined to create 197 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:26,400 Speaker 1: any number of words. Because this was a written codification 198 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,960 Speaker 1: of sound instead of pictograms, it was easily adaptable to 199 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: multiple languages. And because this alphabet was invented to record 200 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: and track trades, the alphabet itself sort of became traded. Uh. 201 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: It was the language of business transactions, but it also 202 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: got adopted for general use because it filled this void 203 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: of systemized writing that was again not pictogram based, that 204 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,680 Speaker 1: people could pick up pretty easily, and let's let's see 205 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: more easily transliterate other languages exactly. Cadmus the Phoenician is 206 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:01,319 Speaker 1: giving credit for introduced sing the alphabet of his people 207 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: to the Greeks, as told in the writings of Herodotus 208 00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 1: and Herodotus says, the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus introduced 209 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,959 Speaker 1: into Greece after their settlement in the country a number 210 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:16,199 Speaker 1: of accomplishments, of which the most important was writing and 211 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,640 Speaker 1: art till then, I think, unknown to the Greeks. At first, 212 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:22,479 Speaker 1: they used the same characters as all the other Phoenicians. 213 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:25,000 Speaker 1: But as time went on and they changed their language, 214 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:28,200 Speaker 1: they also changed the shape of their letters. At that period, 215 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:31,760 Speaker 1: most of the Greeks in the neighborhood were Ionians. They 216 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,480 Speaker 1: were taught these letters by the Phoenicians and adopted them 217 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: with a few alterations for their own use, continuing to 218 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,520 Speaker 1: refer to them as the Phoenician characters, as was only 219 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,680 Speaker 1: right as the Phoenicians had introduced them. So even though 220 00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: it had evolved, they still attributed its um the alphabet 221 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: to the Phoenicians. We should point out that even though 222 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:54,280 Speaker 1: this was a defined writing system, there were variations on 223 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:59,200 Speaker 1: the alphabet in different Phoenician colonies cypro Phoenician, Sardinian, and 224 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,880 Speaker 1: the Punic and Neo Punic, which is the cursive version 225 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:07,199 Speaker 1: of Punic versions founding Carthage. The Carthage versions of the 226 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: alphabets continued to be used until about the third century CE, 227 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: and with the development of this new written alphabet also 228 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: came new ways of writing, so it kind of catalyzed 229 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:21,959 Speaker 1: a whole new age of communication. Wax tablets came into 230 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:28,120 Speaker 1: being where they could um imprint letters into the wax, pens, ink, papyrus, parchment, 231 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: and eventually paper kind of all came from this development, 232 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,199 Speaker 1: so it was a very rapid growth element in the 233 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,320 Speaker 1: world of communication. In three thirty two BC, Alexander the 234 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: Great put Phoenicia under Greek control, and then in one 235 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: BC Roamed demolished Carthage after pursuing Hannibal. There after the 236 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,920 Speaker 1: Second Punic War, and what was left of Phoenicia became 237 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:56,199 Speaker 1: part of the Roman Empire, and ironically, very few instances 238 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: of Phoenician writings actually remain. The papyrus that they often 239 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: wrote on, and some of those early forms of paper 240 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: has really not survived terribly well. What we know mostly 241 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 1: is from other cultures writing about how awesome the Phoenicians 242 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: were and about their alphabet and its development um. The 243 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: oldest surviving Phoenician writing example, which we briefly mentioned earlier, 244 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:19,960 Speaker 1: is in Biblos, and it's on the sarcophagus of King Hyrium, 245 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 1: and it's dated at approximately And most of what we know, 246 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:27,200 Speaker 1: like I said, has actually come from the writings of 247 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:30,360 Speaker 1: the Greeks. So even though the Phoenicians have kind of 248 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: there's a little bit of a shroud of um lack 249 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: of information around them from them, other cultures wrote about 250 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: them enough that we know about them. It's really cool. 251 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 1: So now if you're stuck in spaceship Earth, you'll know, 252 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: thank the Phoenicians you've ben to them. Also, the way 253 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 1: that Dame Judy Dench says that is so charming that 254 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: I will never ever forget it. It's pretty awesome. It's 255 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:57,400 Speaker 1: because Dame Judy Dinch is awesome. Yeah, she is. Prior 256 00:14:57,440 --> 00:14:59,520 Speaker 1: to her, it was Walter Cronkite that narrated that ride, 257 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:02,520 Speaker 1: but then they updated it a few years back and 258 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: she took it over and did a beautiful job, Holly, 259 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,000 Speaker 1: would you like to take a second to talk about stamps? 260 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: Do you also have some listeners? You know, it's I 261 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: have a few pieces. It's a little bit of a hodgepod. 262 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: So the first one is a lesson in an apology 263 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: in a correction, which is from our listener nicol Uh 264 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: regarding the worst the use of the word orient in 265 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: the Cats podcast. And this actually has a multipart thing 266 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: because the more I thought about it, the more I 267 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 1: thought that could be talked about on its own for 268 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,440 Speaker 1: quite a bit. Um. Early on in the podcast, I 269 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,840 Speaker 1: mentioned that the earliest representations of cats were in ancient 270 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: Egypt and some other places that I mentioned some areas 271 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,960 Speaker 1: of the Orient, which is not an accurate use of 272 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: that word. Um. The orient is generally not used to 273 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:48,200 Speaker 1: refer to the place, certainly not to people, but it 274 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: can be used for objects. Um. But the reason it's 275 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: fallen out of favor is that it's often associated with 276 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 1: negative stereotypes, you know, kind of conjures exoticism, and it 277 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 1: allows for um, some kind of contrade three um, postulating 278 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:07,040 Speaker 1: and generalization to happen. Uh. And I'm really super careful 279 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: about it when referring to people. But I will admit 280 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: that there are times when I'm looking at older texts 281 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: which I think the text that I was reading about 282 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:18,000 Speaker 1: that particular thing in the UM in the research was 283 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: from like where this had not fallen out of favor 284 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:23,440 Speaker 1: yet the use of the word orient in that So 285 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 1: I think, I just, um, you know, you fall into 286 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 1: the habit sometimes of the things you're reading. So I 287 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:31,760 Speaker 1: apologize because it didn't. It didn't set off my my 288 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:34,720 Speaker 1: modern um filter meter at all, right, And I was 289 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: just like, yes, well, and because there are is also 290 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: a cat breed that we discussed, Yes, shall get to 291 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: in one moment. Okay, I'm telling me. It's got me 292 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 1: really thinking. So if you want to learn a whole 293 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: lot about why UM that you said isn't correct, there 294 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 1: is a really good essay at the Japan Society UM 295 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: about it, and will link to that in the show notes. 296 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: So normally you would use the word Asian to refer 297 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: to a person, a Asia or Asia to refer to 298 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:04,080 Speaker 1: the region, unless you're referring to objects. So I think 299 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:07,239 Speaker 1: of this as rugs. I think some art you can 300 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,239 Speaker 1: do UM. But for clarity, as you mentioned, there are 301 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:15,160 Speaker 1: cat breeds that are their actual name is orientals. There's 302 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,240 Speaker 1: oriental short hair, Oriental long hair, and sometimes people group 303 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,720 Speaker 1: some of the other breeds that come primarily from Asia 304 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,439 Speaker 1: under that as well, which then got me thinking about 305 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 1: a whole other problem because, like we said, you could 306 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:32,439 Speaker 1: use oriental to refer to objects, but I think most 307 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:36,399 Speaker 1: pet people would not want to think of their cats 308 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 1: as objects, So that gets into a whole other conflict 309 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,639 Speaker 1: of meaning and you know, appropriateness. But it is a 310 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: recognized breed under international cat regulations. If you look at 311 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: any of the international cat societies that regulate sort of 312 00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:55,359 Speaker 1: show cats and how breeding is handled, those breeds are listed. 313 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: So that's a whole lot. But thank you for bringing 314 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: it up because it's a good thing think about. And 315 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,400 Speaker 1: I'm made a woopsy daisy. My second one it's also 316 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 1: about cats, uh, and it is from our listener Andrea, 317 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:09,760 Speaker 1: and she wrote to us on Facebook and said, Hi, 318 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: I just listen to the podcast on the Domestication of Cats, 319 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:14,159 Speaker 1: and I can't believe you didn't mention one of my 320 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,080 Speaker 1: all time favorite quotes. It is from Mark Twain and 321 00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: it is when a man loves cats, I am his 322 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 1: friend and comrade without further introduction, just kind of charming. 323 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 1: And I agree. I generally trust a person that likes animals. 324 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,919 Speaker 1: I like animals. You're trustworthy. And we we got the 325 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:31,760 Speaker 1: people who were sad that I that I don't like 326 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:36,680 Speaker 1: dogs much, or specifically my remarks about Coca spaniels. They're 327 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,919 Speaker 1: not a bad dog by dog basis, Yeah, and that 328 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: that's it's mostly a result of in breeding and things. 329 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:49,160 Speaker 1: Copanials you grew up with were not delightful. But we 330 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:51,880 Speaker 1: we've seen some adorable pictures of Cocker spaniels who don't 331 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: look bity at all. Bity dogs come in all shape, 332 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:58,760 Speaker 1: sizes and breeds, That's what I know. And sometimes cats 333 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,400 Speaker 1: will bite as well. Uh. And then I just wanted 334 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:03,320 Speaker 1: to say thank you to our listener Haley, who sent 335 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,159 Speaker 1: us a photo of her two super gorgeous cats. I 336 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:07,960 Speaker 1: will look at anybody's cat pictures if you want to 337 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: send them, and if you would like to do that, 338 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: you can do so by emailing them to History Podcast 339 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. You can also touch base with 340 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: us on Twitter at missed in History or at Facebook 341 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: dot com slash History class stuff. We're on tumbler at 342 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,399 Speaker 1: missed in history dot tumbler dot com, and we're also 343 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,000 Speaker 1: on Pinterest. If you want to learn a little bit 344 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,239 Speaker 1: more about the subject we talked about today, you can 345 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:31,960 Speaker 1: go to our website and if you enter the word 346 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,480 Speaker 1: language into the search bar, you will get a cool 347 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,439 Speaker 1: article called how did Language Evolve? Which is to me 348 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:41,320 Speaker 1: ceaselessly fascinating, So you can learn about that and a 349 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 1: car jillion other things. That's the number I'm using at 350 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:49,960 Speaker 1: our website, which is how stuff works dot com for 351 00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:52,440 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics because it 352 00:19:52,520 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: has stuff works dot com. Hmm. Netflix streams TV shows 353 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,919 Speaker 1: and movies directly to your home, saving you time, money, 354 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 1: and hassle. As a Netflix member, you can instantly watch 355 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:16,520 Speaker 1: TV episodes and movies streaming directly to your PC, Mac, 356 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,160 Speaker 1: or right to your TV with your Xbox three, sixty 357 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,840 Speaker 1: p S three or Nintendo we console plus Apple devices, 358 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: Kindle and Nook. 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