Practice question · Multiple choice
Why was the Phoenician alphabet as consequential as iron?
Hints
- Cuneiform had hundreds of signs; hieroglyphs took years to learn.
- What happens when the gate to a profession disappears?
Show the answer
D. Twenty-two signs ended writing as a profession
Why
A merchant with no priesthood behind him could learn it in weeks. Writing stopped being a career and became a tool, producing contracts, letters, public law, and eventually citizens who can read the law they are governed by. Every alphabet from Europe to South Asia descends from those twenty-two signs.
Practise The Iron Age and the End of Prehistory
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More questions on The Iron Age and the End of Prehistory
- Complete the statement about the threshold.
- Sort each statement: supported, or an instance of technological determinism?
- Why is calling prehistory "the prologue to human history" a mistake about proportion?
- Why is "iron caused the fall of aristocracies" a claim to handle carefully?
- The boundary between prehistory and history marks a real change in how people lived.
- The Phoenician alphabet had about 22 signs where cuneiform had hundreds. What did that reduction actually…
- What follows from an alphabet that ordinary people can learn?