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Phoenician arrowheads
Phoenician inscribed bronze arrowheads / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Phoenician arrowheads or Phoenician javelin heads are a well-known group of almost 70 Phoenician inscribed bronze arrowheads from the 11th century BC onwards.[1]
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The first known inscription was the Ruweiseh arrowhead; it is the only one found in situ. The other arrowheads are of unknown origin, having first appeared on the antiquities markets.[2]
The inscriptions are thought to be personal names.[3]
They are known as KAI 20–22.
Because of their early date, the arrowheads are important in the modern understanding of the history of the Phoenician language; in particular, the 1953 discovery of the three al-Khader arrowheads is said to have "initiated a new stage in the study of alphabetic origins".[4] It has become conventional to refer to the written script as "Proto-Canaanite" until the mid-11th century BC, the point at which "Phoenician" is first attested on the arrowheads.[5] Frank Moore Cross and Józef Milik wrote in 1954 that "[t]he el-Khadr javelin-heads provide the missing link between the latest of the Proto-Canaanite epigraphs, and the earliest of the Phoenician inscriptions".[6][7][8][9]