The First Alphabet is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2020.
It is part one of a miniseries in two parts called A to Z. The title of part two is How Writing Changed the World.
We are talking about two episodes of the long-running program NOVA, which is dedicated to the history of science and technology.
Part one is about the history of writing in the ancient world, with special focus on two locations:
** Ancient Egypt and the writing system which was used there: hieroglyphs
** Ancient Mesopotamia and the writing system which was used there: cuneiform
This film focuses on these pictorial writing systems in order to find out how they paved the way for the creation of the first true alphabet, the Phoenician alphabet.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Writer, producer, and director: Hugh Sington
** Narrator: Jeannette Robinson
** Language: English (mostly)
** Subtitles: English
** Available on the PBS website
** Run time: 54 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants:
** Ahmad Al-Jallad – philologist, author
** Yongshen Chen – philologist
** Günter Dreyer – Egyptologist (he speaks German)
** Yasmin El-Shazy – Egyptologist
** Irving Finkel – philologist (he is an expert on ancient Mesopotamia)
** Orly Goldwasser – Egyptologist
** Dekuan Huang – author
** Yves Leterme – calligrapher (Belgium)
** Brody Neuenschwander – calligrapher
** Pierre Tallet – Egyptologist (he speaks French)
** Lydia Wilson – historian
** Bill Yidumduma Harney – artist (Australia)
The first writing systems in the world were created in two locations which are not far from each other. It happened at the same time (ca. 3000 BC) (perhaps 3200 BC):
Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia.
These locations are part of the area which is known as the fertile crescent, a boomerang-shaped area, which was the cradle of the first civilizations in the ancient world. Egypt in the west and Mesopotamia in the east.
The people of ancient Egypt created a writing system which is known as hieroglyphs, while the people of ancient Mesopotamia created a writing system which is known as cuneiform. Both cases represent a pictorial writing system. We do not yet have an alphabet.
According to this film, we can identify the location where the transformation from a pictorial system (hieroglyphs) to an alphabet began: Serabit El-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula.
Asian workers who came to work here were Canaanites who were related to the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians were based in an area which corresponds to present-day Lebanon.
They lived between Egypt (in the south west) and Mesopotamia (in the north east).
They had contact with both civilizations and noticed that both of them had a writing system.
Inspired by Egypt and Mesopotamia, they created their own writing system, which was not a pictorial system but the first true alphabet (ca. 1200 BC).
The Phoenicians were traders who sailed all over the Mediterranean Sea and had contact with many peoples living in this area.
Inspired by the Phoenicians, the Greeks created their own version, the Greek alphabet (ca. 1000 BC).
Inspired by the Greeks, the Etruscans created their own version, the Etruscan alphabet (ca. 700 BC).
Inspired by the Etruscans, the Romans created their own version, the Latin alphabet (ca. 600 BC).
What do reviewers say about this documentary miniseries?
On Amazon the miniseries A to Z has at the moment 39 ratings, 8 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.8 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent. Here are the details:
5 stars = 84 percent
4 stars = 16 percent
3 stars = zero
2 stars = zero
1 star = zero
I understand the positive reviews and I agree with them. The topic is important. The story deserves to be told, and in this miniseries, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS. The miniseries A to Z, which runs for almost two hours, is a short version of a BBC program, broadcast in 2020, which runs for almost three hours: The Secret History of Writing presented by Lydia Wilson:
** Episode 1 = From Pictures to Words
** Episode 2 = Words on a Page
** Episode 3 = Changing the Script
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries and Pictograms by Akira Nakanishi (1990)
A History of Writing: From Hieroglyphs to Multimedia by Anne-Marie Christin (2002)
A History of Writing by Steven Roger Fischer (2004) (2021)
The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process by Stephen D. Houston (2004) (2008)
The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms by Andrew Robinson (2007)
The Oxford History of Historical Writing - Volume One: Beginnings to AD 600 edited by Andrew Feldherr and Grant Hardy (2011) (2015)
The Golden Thread: A History of Writing by Ewan Clayton (2014)
# 2. Items available on the internet
Lydia Wilson, “Who Invented the Alphabet?” The Smithsonian Magazine, January 2021
Cari Shane, “Why was the alphabet invented, anyway?” Discover Magazine, 25 February 2022
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