フェニキア文字の解読
◈解読に貢献した人物
フェニキア文字を初めて体系的に解読。
◈どのように解読されたか
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.
◈実際に解読された文字
𐤋𐤁𐤏𐤋 = l-b-ʿ-l =「バアルへ」（to Baal）— 母音なしの子音のみの表記。ヘブライ語לבעל、アラビア語لبعلと同じ構造。
◈解読の前後の物語
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.