A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

The Gift of the Alphabet 47
Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy
fairs; bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
VI. They Gave the Alphabet to Greece
Now these Phoenicians brought in among the Hellenes
many arts when they settled in this land of Boeotia, and
especially letters, which did not exist, as it appears to me,
among the Hellenes before this time; and at first they
brought in those which are used by the Phoenician race generally,
but afterwards, as time went on, they changed with Herodotus v,
their speech the form of the letters also. During this time ^ '
the lonians were the race of Hellenes who dwelt near them
in most of the places where they were; and these having
received letters by instruction of the Phoenicians, changed
their form slightly and so made use of them, and in doing
so they declared them to be called
"phenicians" as was
just, seeing that the Phoenicians had introduced them into
Hellas. Also the lonians from ancient times call paper
"skins," because, formerly paper beii^g scarce, they used
skins of sheep and goats; nay, even in my own time many
of the Barbarians write on such skins.
Vn. Letter of Ebed-Tob, Governor of Jerusalem,
to the King of Egypt
In the latter part of the fifteenth century, the successors of Thothmes
III weakened and his great empire declined; Ancient World, 12.
Syria, his chief dependency, fell into anarchy. The petty princes
and governors of cities warred against one another and rebelled
against pharaoh. Letters poured into his hands from them, accusing
one another of disloyalty and imploring military protection. A
great number of these letters have been found in excavations at
Tel-el-Amarna, Egypt.
Written in the Babylonian language and the
cuneiform script, they prove the dominance of Babylonian culture