Researcher in residence at the Maison Suger | September - December 2024
Benjamin Sass is emeritus professor of archaeology of Tel Aviv University. His books are Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals (1997, with Nahman Avigad), The Alphabet at the Turn of the Millennium (2005), and Aramaic and Figural Stamp Impressions on Bricks of the Sixth Century B.C. from Babylon (2010, with Joachim Marzahn). In the last decade he has been writing extensively about the alphabet in the earlier Iron Age, much of it with Israel Finkelstein. The research questions and results of these studies are encapsulated in the synopsis of a paper in Near Eastern Archaeaology 86.1 (2023), 28-45).
The project
Title: Mortals, deities and divine symbols - Rethinking ancient imagery from the Levant to Mesopotamia
"The time within the 2nd millennium BC - the 19th/18th century or the 14th/13th - of the genesis of the Semitic alphabet remains disputed, as is its location: in Egypt/Sinai or in Palestine. In a joint research, Israel Finkelstein and I plan to elucidate this problematic. I have addressed this enigma in the past and conceded that the evidence was insufficient for a solution. Working now in tandem, and profiting from discoveries and insights of the last few years, Finkelstein and I hope for more concrete results this time."
Hosting institution: Collège de France
Selective bibliography
2017 B. Sass. The emergence of monumental West Semitic alphabetic writing, with an emphasis on Byblos. Semitica 59, 109–141.
2019 B. Sass. The pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions from Byblos, their elusive dating, and their affinities with the early Phoenician inscriptions. In Ph. Abrahami and L. Battini eds. ina dmarri u qan ṭuppi. Par la bêche et le stylet ! Cultures et sociétés syro-mésopotamiennes. Mélanges offerts à Olivier Rouault. Oxford, 157–180.
2021 B. Sass. “Was the age of Solomon without monumental art?” The Frankfort–Albright dispute, more than sixty years later. In Vanessa Boschloos, Bruno Overlaet, Ingrid Moriah Swinnen and Véronique Van der Stede eds. Travels through the Orient and the Mediterranean World: Essays presented to Eric Gubel (OLA 302; Greater Mesopotamia Studies 3). Leuven, Paris and Bristol CT, 345–366.
2021 B. Sass. Can a unique letterform clinch the authenticity of the Shapira leather manuscripts? A rejoinder to Matthieu Richelle. Semitica 63, 223–242.
2023 B. Sass and I. Finkelstein. The West Semitic alphabet in the early Iron Age: A new hypothesis. Near Eastern Archaeology 86.1, 28–45.