Ugaritic Alphabet

Ugaritic alphabet, cuneiform writing system used on the Syrian coast from the 15th to 13th century bc. It is believed that it was invented independent of other cuneiform writing systems and of the linear North Semitic alphabet, though similarities in certain letters suggest that it may have been patterned after the North Semitic alphabet. Unlike the North Semitic alphabet, however, Ugaritic was written from left to right; its 30 symbols included 3 syllabic signs for vowels, as opposed to the 22 consonantal letters in the North Semitic alphabet. Extant documents in Ugaritic are written on clay tablets with a wedge-shaped stylus and date from the 15th–14th century bc. They were found primarily at Ugarit (Ras Shamra) on the Syrian coast in 1929. Two other inscriptions in Ugaritic, found at Beth-Shemesh in Palestine (modern Tel Bet Shemesh, Israel) and in Lower Galilee (modern northern Israel), suggest that the script may have been known throughout a fairly wide area.