Phoenicia and Greece · 1050-700 BC

Twenty-two letters: how the alphabet spread

The Phoenician alphabet had just 22 letters, all consonants, and anyone could learn it in weeks. Students follow it from Byblos to Greece, where vowels were added, and on to Italy and the letters on this page.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, 1000 BC to 700 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

The Phoenician alphabet had just 22 letters, all consonants, and anyone could learn it in weeks. Students follow it from Byblos to Greece, where vowels were added, and on to Italy and the letters on this page.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why an alphabet is easier to learn than cuneiform or hieroglyphs.
  • Show on the map the route the alphabet took from Phoenicia to Greece and Italy.
  • Give one example of a letter whose name and shape come from a Phoenician word.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

1000 BC

Where writing got simple

Open the map in 1000 BC on Byblos, Sidon and Tyre. Turn on Historical Events and find the Cultural Milestone "Phoenician Alphabet Created". The oldest long text in these letters is on the coffin of King Ahiram of Byblos, from around 1000 BC.

Open this view on the map
b

800 BC

Across the sea to Greece

Go to 800 BC and look at the Aegean. Greek traders met Phoenician ships on islands such as Crete, Cyprus and Euboea. The Greeks copied the letters and turned some of them into vowels. Find the long island of Euboea, north of Athens.

Open this view on the map
c

700 BC

On to Italy

Jump to 700 BC. One of the oldest Greek inscriptions, on "Nestor's Cup", was found on the island of Ischia near Naples, a Greek trading post. From here the Etruscans and then the Romans took the letters. Find Ischia in the Bay of Naples.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Cuneiform used hundreds of signs; the alphabet used 22. Who in a city gains when writing becomes easy to learn?
  2. The Phoenician letters had no vowels. Try writing your name without vowels. Why did Greek need them more than Phoenician did?
  3. Aleph meant "ox" and beth meant "house". Why might the first letters have started as pictures?
  4. The alphabet traveled with merchants, not with armies. Which spreads an idea further: trade or conquest?
  5. Almost everything written on Phoenician papyrus has rotted away. How does that change what we know about the people who invented our letters?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Darius the Great, whose empire later ran on Aramaic, a language written in letters descended from the Phoenician alphabet. Discuss: why would a Persian king choose a foreign script for his clerks?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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