1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,184
Meet Paleo‑Hebrew: the ancient script used to write early Hebrew before the familiar “square” letters of today.

2
00:00:07,184 --> 00:00:14,498
Closely related to Phoenician, it was the alphabet of Israel and Judah from around the 10th to 6th centuries BCE.

3
00:00:14,498 --> 00:00:19,481
It’s an abjad of 22 consonants, written right to left, with no vowel letters.

4
00:00:19,481 --> 00:00:24,983
Its letter shapes are angular and early, like an X‑shaped aleph and a cross‑like taw.

5
00:00:24,983 --> 00:00:31,002
The language it writes is Hebrew; “paleo” refers to the script style, not a different tongue.

6
00:00:31,002 --> 00:00:38,509
We know it from famous inscriptions like the Gezer Calendar and the Siloam Inscription, and from ostraca at Lachish.

7
00:00:38,509 --> 00:00:48,088
After the Babylonian exile, Hebrew shifted to the Aramaic, or square, script—but Paleo‑Hebrew survived on some coins and in the Samaritan tradition.

8
00:00:48,088 --> 00:00:53,525
Same words, older letters—Paleo‑Hebrew shows us how Hebrew looked at its beginnings.