The textual record from the southern Levant paints a picture of a complex and prolific network of cuneiform scribal communities in the late second millennium BCE. In this same period, a different community of text makers used the early alphabet in this region. Yet these early alphabetic inscriptions are limited to short inscriptions on clay vessels, or prestige objects made of refined materials. In the early first millennium BCE, there is a dramatic change in literacy practices. Cuneiform is no longer used and local variants of the alphabet are used as prestige and administrative...
