Quick Facts Type Syllabic Genealogy Unrelated Location West Asia Time 1500 BCE to 1400 BCE Direction Variable

Byblos is an ancient Phoenician city along the coast of modern day Lebanon. Its name was the origin of the Greek word "biblion" which means "book", hence "bibliography" and "Bible". In short Byblos is nearly synonymous with writing.

Ironically, Byblos was also home to a still poorly understood script during roughly the middle of the second millenium BCE. There are only a few short examples of this script, mainly on stone or metal. This script contains roughly 100 signs, which fits with the number of signs necessary for a syllabary.

The following is an example of the Byblos script.