Decipherment of Phoenician
◈Key Scholars
First systematically deciphered Phoenician script.
◈How Was It Deciphered?
Barthélemy used a bilingual inscription (Greek + Phoenician) from Malta for 1:1 sign correspondence analysis. Phoenician is an abjad — only 22 consonants, no vowels written. His knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic made the pattern-matching fall naturally into place. He was the first to demonstrate empirically that all Semitic alphabets share a common root.
◈Decoded Characters
𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋 = l-b-ʿ-l = "to Baal" — consonants only, no vowels. Identical structure to Hebrew לבעל and Arabic لبعل.
◈The Full Story
Phoenician civilization was erased from history after the Roman era. Carthage was destroyed, and medieval Europeans had no idea what the signs on Phoenician artifacts meant.
In 1764 Barthélemy analyzed the Malta bilingual and announced Phoenician was a 22-consonant abjad.
The decipherment completed the genealogy of Mediterranean alphabets, proving Greek derived from Phoenician and founding comparative epigraphy.