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→The Other Alphabet
==The Other Alphabet==
The main other alphabet that developed was based on cuneiform (Figure 1). During the early and middle 2nd millennium BCE, the two most common scripts in the ancient Near East were Egyptian hieroglyphs and cuneiform, which derived from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria). The cuneiform-based alphabet that developed took hold in the ancient city of Ugarit, which was an important Late Bronze Age city (1600-1200 BCE) located on the Mediterranean coast in modern day Syria. The city of Ugarit was a kingdom that often was a vassal state to larger powers such as the Hittites and Egyptians that were powerful in the Late Bronze Age. However, Ugarit was a wealthy merchant town that had extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean and likely inland regions in the Near East.<ref>For more on Ugarit, see: Yon, Marguerite. 2006. <i>The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra.</i> Winona Lake, Ind: Eisenbrauns.</ref> This made it an influential city as well as a wealthy one.
Neither the hieroglyphs-based alphabet, which became the Canaanite alphabet, nor the cuneiform one were widespread in the 2nd millennium BCE. In fact, the more complicated hieroglyphs and cuneiform scripts that were non-alphabetical were still dominant in the region and were utilized. In particular, cuneiform and Akkadian specifically were the common script and language used in communication between states and likely merchants. Overall, although two alphabet scripts came into existence, there presence was limited due to the key political powers and trade networks established at the time that promoted the more ancient scripts.<ref>For more on the history of the Late Bronze Age, see: Steel, Louise. 2013. <i>Materiality and Consumption in the Bronze Age Mediterranean.</i> Routledge Studies in Archaeology v.8. New York: Routledge.</ref>
