The earliest Paleo Hebrew inscriptions dated about 1450BC. Until recently it was assumed that the Hebrews had acquired the knowledge of an Aleph Bert from Phoenician alphabet carvings. However, modern archeology has provided evidence that the Hebrews in Egypt devised the world’s first Aleph Bet and carried that knowledge to Canaan on their sojourn. Over the next several hundred years, regional characteristics began to separate the script into different national alphabets (all within 100-200 miles), including Israelite, Samaritan, Moabite, Edomite, Phoenician, and Old Aramaic. Even within those smaller regions, the script also changed due to the writing medium changes, i.e. chiseled stone, clay, papyrus, etc.
The explanations and products on our website occasionally use some of the regional variants that help demonstrate the functional meanings of the words depicted.
