The Story Of The Alphabet Collection

Development of the English alphabet. The Old Greek alphabet derived from Phoenician and was in use by 900-800 BC. A western variant, known as the Euboean or Cumae alphabet

Pictographs and linear script symbols. The British archaeologist Arthur Evans (1851-1941) found thousands of clay tablets dating from the second millennium BC at Knossos, Crete

Egyptian and Assyrian counting systems. Early methods of number counting involved the use of fingers, while early written records used strokes to indicate numbers

Table comparing ancient scripts. Table based on an 1859 work by French egyptologist Emmanuel de Rouge (1811-1872), comparing eleven types of related ancient and modern scripts

Egyptian scarabs and Cretan seal-stones. Coloured image of an illustration by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans (1851-1941)

Linear script symbols arranged in groups of two or more. Whilst excavating Knossos, the British archaeologist Arthur Evans (1851-1941) found three forms of writing which he defined as Minoan

Development of Arabic numerals. Table illustrating the development and spread of numerals from the 1st to 14th centuries AD

Cretan symbols, 5th to 6th centuries BC
Cretan symbols. Coloured illustration from a diagram by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans (1851-1941). This diagram was based on artefacts dating from the 6th to 5th centuries BC

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