Discovered in the Valle San Montano on Pithekoussai are old inscriptions from the eighth century. Among these were three lines of verse on the “Cup of Nestor”, a famous drinking cup. Also found in this area were imported objects from Phoenicia (Powell). This strengthens Phoenician ties in this area. In Athens, there was discovered a very important find: the first true Greek alphabet inscription. This came from 740 B.C.(Powell). It was located on the famous Diplyon oinochoe. It had syntax and hexameter, making it one of the most crucial finds, and was showing the final step in the development of the Greek alphabet.
Some of the Greek inscriptions come from the first-half of the seventh century. There is a Diplyon vase from Attica that holds a few lines of text (Carpenter). Also in Naukratis, no earlier than the middle of the seventh century, was a second vase with an inscription. At the graves in Iasylos was found a seventh century vase possessing a few letters put on without any real meaning. There were many earlier vases in the Greek world, but none of these could compare, for they held no inscriptions like the one just mentioned. There are graffiti on rocks of the hillside of Thera (Carpenter). The change from the boustrophedon method of writing to the left to right method on these particular …show more content…
Its location on the map is in eastern Greece, also the location of the Phoenicians. It lies along the east-west trade route and the northern trade route leading into Anatolia. The presence of a tiny Phoenician contingent at Ialysos in the mid-eighth century has been used to identify Rhodes as a possible candidate. However, there is very little information. “the rather meager evidence for Rhodian overseas expansion in the earlier eighth century is particularly discouraging.” (qtd. in Woodard, 236) The stage is set for this theory, but the lack of evidence halts the true conclusion of