ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 24

ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET

Could prehistoric man read and write? Did lie originate the modern alphabet? We know that men of (he Stone Age were artists, as their coloured pictures of the mammoth and reindear are still to be secii well preserved in certain caves But had they literary aspirations a« well ?

This is suggested by a communication just made to the Academie des Inscriptions by Dr. A. Morel, of tho University of Lyons. Some Neolithic remains were recently dug up at Glozel, twelve miles from Vichy. They included tools, weapons, and vases, as well as stones marked by inscriptions, which Dr. Morel contends go to prove that man of the Stone Age made use of an alphabet. In the days when the reindeer still roamed over the country of France, primitive man had learned to represent his ideas by means of a syllabic alpha-

bet. Dr. Morel has detected ninety of these alphabetic characters. He argues that the Phoenicians really derived, their alphabet from Neolithic tribes, as may be seen by striking resemblances in the forms of the letters. M. Salomon Reinach confirms Dr. Morel’s statements. The distinguished academician made a special visit to Glozel and personally saw an inscribed tablet unearthed from a stratum of clay. In these remains, he said, there was not a vestige of any metal nor of any Roman or Gallic pottery. Fifty of the tablets are covered with well-formed and regular writing, some of the signs recalling in a surprising manner the Phoenician anti Archaic Greek alphabets, although it is impossible to decipher tlie text. 'These communications have given rise to a very keen academic controversy.'