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The alter of Babylonian writing (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list)
Alphabetic script
11 Language, communication, libraries and education
11.02 Writing systems and writing media
11.02.02 Alphabetic script
Astrological and astronomical knowledge and theories
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05.01 Astrological and astronomical knowledge and theories
Cuneiform script
11 Language, communication, libraries and education
11.02 Writing systems and writing media
11.02.01 Cuneiform script

Keywords
Babylonia
scripts

Period
1st century CE

Channel
Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 7.57 (56):
Epigenes, an authority of the first rank, teaches that the Babylonians had astronomical observations for 730 000 years inscribed on baked bricks, and those who give the shortest period, Berossus and Critodemus, make it 490 000 years; from which it appears that the alphabet has been in use from very ancient times. It was brought to Latium by Pelasgi.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Pliny the Elder, Naturalia Historia 7.57 (56)

Bibliography

Rackham 1961, X 636-637

Rackham H. Pliny, Natural History. 12 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960.

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000077.php

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