Introduction

Abstract Writing: throughout world history from its invention some 5000 years ago until today people using this technology have left behind a massive number of sources for the historian. Yet, it is clear that they did not write down every language spoken across the world. Instead, they consciously selected only a number of languages to do so, sometimes using shared scripts, sometimes with scripts specific for one language only. The topic of this book is to investigate the choices of languages and scripts people made when writing in the long and richly-documented history of the ancient Near East and the eastern Mediterranean, from the invention of script there sometime before 3000 bc to the first centuries of the Common Era. It will show how we can see a radical change from an initial use of a single, cosmopolitan system with its roots in Babylonian cuneiform to one using a profusion of vernacular languages with their own, mostly alphabetic, scripts. It will explore how we can understand the development of the latter in relationship to the cosmopolitan system and the consequences of that shift on the literate cultures of the region.