ANCR-601 Lessons

It seems Professor Wessex’s interns have been busy yet again. It did seem a little out of character for Professor Wessex to set the classroom up all on her own every week -- magic or no magic. Some of the Proto-Canaanite artefacts have been switched out for fragile-looking sheets of papyrus which are suspended at reading level. The most eye-catching thing in the room, however, is a small vial about the size of an inkwell in the center of Professor Wessex’s desk. Despite its small size, the beams from the witchlight lamps often catch it, and students find themselves staring at it, mesmerised. The contents seem to shift from purple, to black, to a sort of in-between shade all in the same instant.

The predatory professor notes the direction of the students’ gaze and the barest hint of a wry smile appears on her face. She moves to stand in front of it, breaking their focus, and starts the lesson.

Introduction
Finally, now that we have drawn our discussion of Proto-Canaanite to a close, we are ready to talk about Phoenician. As I mentioned, Phoenician developed from Proto-Canaanite, though it was not alone. Because Proto-Canaanite was the first true alphabet (though it still lacked vowels), it caught on in many areas and fostered the beginnings of many scripts and languages. Phoenician simply happens to be the most similar of its child scripts. Indeed, as you will see in a moment, there are many similarities between the two.

Unfortunately, as we only have one lesson to cover this script, we will be relying heavily on these comparisons to contextualize and explain Phoenician. It should easily be doable, however, as you already know much of the history, symbols, and area of the world in which it was used.

Merchants, Conquests, and Wars
We already know the basic history behind Proto-Canaanite. It appeared in roughly 1900 B.C.E. and was used in two different regions -- hence the two different names for versions of the same script. Phoenician began to be distinguishable from late Proto-Canaanite around 1200 B.C.E. and saw continued use until roughly 200 B.C.E.¹ It was first used in Phoenicia, as you might imagine, however it quickly spread around the Mediterranean to all nations the Phoenicians had contact with, similar to the spread of Proto-Canaanite, but moreso. Just like the Vikings, the Phoenicians were kings of trade. Because of this, Phoenician exerted considerable influence on writing systems all over the world at the time, and therefore still exerts influence on its descendents. Not only was it used far and wide among Mediterranean port cities, but even spread a great distance to parts of Europe and Africa. In addition to Phoenician, a variant called Punic developed alongside this script, particularly in Northern Africa and used from 800 B.C.E. to 500 C.E.

In 332 B.C.E., the Greek Empire conquered the lands that made up Phoenicia, bringing it under their rule. The Greeks adopted the Phoenician writing system, though with some changes, and spread it to the corners of their conquered nations. Then, when the Romans eventually overthrew the Greek Empire, their new Roman overlords continued using the efficient language system already in place. Of course, by this time, contact with other languages, scripts, and people had changed Phoenician into something different -- or rather, into many different forms.

While all of this war and conquering meant that the Phoenician language system spread rapidly, it did not do historians any favors. Nor, as you can imagine, was it very beneficial for the Phoenicians themselves. Very few records of the Phoenicians exist, despite the fact that one of their main trade goods was papyrus and they were famed for being quite learned. This is largely due to the various conquests Phoenicia suffered under both the Roman and Greek Empires, as well as wars with other neighboring ancient nations, like Babylonia; wealthy nations are rarely left in peace for long. One example that shows just a glimpse of the devastation Phoenicia suffered is evident in the decimation of Carthage in 146 B.C.E. by the Roman Empire. The entire city was burned to the ground, leaving only ashes and rubble -- and definitely no genealogies, spellbooks, or other historical documents.

Another, though less devastating, factor for preservation was the large amount of migration that Phoenicians took part in. They traveled to the reaches of the known world. On the opposite side of the coin, many peoples migrated to live in Phoenician cities and ports, due to the prosperity and wealth of the great traders. These immigrants intermarried with the current inhabitants, making one, solid definition of “Phoenicians” rather difficult to pin down due to broad ethnographic, cultural, and religious variety. Though, in basic terms we know that they were a group of Semitic people -- much like their ancestors that used Proto-Canaanite -- and that the modern-day Lebanese are their closest descendants. Much other than that is shrouded in mystery, sadly. Magianthropologists and historians alike are still attempting to put together pieces of the puzzle as we unearth new artefacts and uncover discoveries.

Hooked on Phoenician
Now, with the thousand and one tales of Arabian nights out of the way, let us return to the actual point of the lesson: the script itself. Phoenician, similar to Anglo-Saxon Futhork, expanded upon its parent system and added more symbols to bring it to a total of 22 glyphs. These three additional glyphs -- Samek, Pe, and Tet -- were added to the script and represented the sounds /s/, /p/, and /ṭ/ respectively. The /p/ sound had not previously been represented in the script, and the other two were similar sound variations. You can see a list of the symbols, their sounds, and their meanings on the handouts on your tables.

Even with only a cursory glance you can see the names, sound values, and meanings of the symbols remained largely the same. Only very minor changes occurred, such as Daleth’s simplification of meanings; it dropped the meaning “fish,” which was then appropriated by one of the new signs, Samek. There were also a few slight modifications to the pronunciations and names of the signs themselves, though they were not very extensive and, in truth, some scholars will call them by their old names as well (though it is best to avoid this for a sake of clarity, especially when comparing and contrasting the two scripts).

By far the most important and obvious difference is the difference in the shapes of the symbols themselves. Over time, the signs took on a far more stylized form, moving more towards the abstract and farther away from pictographic symbols of Proto-Canaanite that were more reminiscent of Egyptian than Greek or Latin. As one example, once it became part of Phoenician, ‘Aleph looked more like the Latin letter “A” on its side rather than the head of an ox. Fortunately, despite the fact that the symbols themselves moved away from physical representations, they did not lose their ideographic and logographic meanings, which is crucial to the next part of our lesson.

Lastly, in terms of differences between Phoenician and Proto-Canaanite, is the way in which it was written (and therefore read).  While Proto-Canaanite could be written starting in either direction, as well as top to bottom, and boustrophedon, Phoenician did not have as many choices. Nearly all examples of Phoenician writing start at the right and move across to the left, similar to modern scripts in the same area. There are, occasionally, examples of Phoenician that read from left to right, but these are not standard.

Revolution and Rediscovery
For centuries, the commonly-held belief was that any vestiges of magical ability in Proto-Canaanite had disintegrated into nothing by the time it became Phoenician. There were fringe groups that argued otherwise -- much like those that argue for the possibility that the Anglo-Saxon Futhork and Younger Futhark have magical uses -- but the magical community at large dismissed the idea. It was believed that, because the shapes of the runes changed drastically, they no longer would or could have held the same ideographic meaning to their users. This theory was further supported by the fact that there were no magically active artefacts, despite the fact that the magical community discovered and excavated many Phoenician sites quite early in comparison to Muggles (as was also the case with Proto-Canaanite sites). There simply seemed to be no magical effects on any Phoenician artefacts, despite the existence of many artefacts or documents that discussed magic, or seemed to be written in a way intended to have magical effect.

It was only three years ago that that belief was changed nearly overnight. A small team of magiarchaeologists was studying secluded ruins to the north of Burj al-Qasab, the modern-day Syrian city nearest to the ancient kingdom of Ugarit. While the tombs and royal palace at Ugarit had been cleared for Muggle discovery much earlier -- in the 1920s -- smaller satellite sites were still being investigated. The dig site was home to numerous research ventures, including a pet project to re-create a type of ink described in Phoenician trade logs. The recipe was incomplete, but its main constituents were an unidentified plant and shell fragments, whose ultimate purpose was to create a regal purple tint.²

The person in charge had managed to create a passable solution of the right color and consistency, and were further experimenting to perfect the brew. However, due to careless storage, the solution spilled onto a strange, spherical stone that was inscribed with Zayin and Gimel. The artefact promptly exploded. Needless to say, the ink project was hastily discontinued, apart from one intrepid individual, whose clandestine work continued. Based off of the theory that this ink-like potion had accidentally activated latent magical meanings of the two runes inscribed on the stone (which respectively meant “weapon” and “throwstick”), a final concoction of Oenanthe crocata, powdered Mackled Malaclaw exoskeleton, and a few other sundry ingredients were put together. After its successful application to over a half dozen artefacts with relatively predictable results, the individual’s proposal began to garner significant attention in the academic world and sparked a renewed study of Phoenician.³

Unfortunately, this means that many potentially magical Phoenician artefacts are presently in the hands of unknowing Muggles. In typical circumstances, curse-breaking teams must leave some artefacts from ancient tombs behind in order not to arouse Muggle suspicion. While all inherently magical artefacts are removed from the site and put in wizarding museums, ministries, and the like, the majority of non-magical artefacts are left behind. A handful are taken in order to ensure our studies are not missing the Muggle piece of the puzzle, as there is much they can still tell us, but we dare not take too much. However, as none of the Phoenician runic artefacts showed signs of magic, most of them were left behind for Muggles to discover, unless they were chosen by chance to be part of the small sample of non-magical artefacts we took. A great oversight, certainly.

Magical Meanings
Owing to the fact that these symbols have only recently been discovered as magical in the last three years, many studies surrounding them are still in the research or publishing stage. However, it is largely held that Phoenician bears many similarities to the ideographic system used in Proto-Canaanite. The most basic ideographic meanings listed in your handouts were expanded upon over time due to associations that developed. However, there is the small matter of figuring out what these associations are, first and foremost.

There are also likely to be nuances unique to the younger script, as the system of magic will have naturally developed over time and due to contact with other cultures. Finally there is the matter of the additional glyphs, and many magiarchaeologists, charms researchers, and magianthropologists alike are currently racing to find out just what their meanings are, if there are any. Some hold to the belief that these added glyphs bear no magical use at all, though this is largely disregarded by the wider academic community.

While there are no authentic artefacts that still bear the ink-like potion, it is thought that for stone inscriptions, the symbols were first carved and then a coat of the ink was applied to the symbols carefully with a brush, which served both visually to make the symbols pop, and magically to activate the glyphs. When discussing pottery and papyrus, however, the rune was just made with the ink itself.⁴ This hypothesis is based on the partial text remaining on a papyrus manuscript titled Panteo Foiniki or also called U-3, which makes vague references to the manner in which ceremonial paints were applied to the temple of Dagon for blessings of fertility.

Strange Brews, Strange Symbols
As far as its practical application, study of this particular potion-based activation is ongoing, and several items have been reactivated and successfully studied, but progress is slow for reasons I will get into in the next lesson. The general idea of potion-based activation is neither completely unique to Phoenician, nor unheard of. You may remember that we briefly mentioned the possibility of potion-activated scripts in Year Four. Phoenician is one of the prime examples of a potion-activated script, though, it can also be thought of in the terms of “magical ink,” as the process of creating ink requires heat to be applied, and creates magical reactions between the ingredients.

Unfortunately, the magical processes that occur during the brewing also happen to make the ink quite flammable, which is rather inconvenient, though it explains much.⁵ When Phoenicia’s cities were razed, the fires burnt off all the potion that was applied to the stone or clay, which would remove the magical activator but leave the inscription behind, essentially rendering it non-magical.⁶ Similarly, any papyrus was quick to go up in flames as well, leaving only partial fragments whose runic magic was compromised. Interestingly, for reasons yet unexplained, pottery seems to hold the rune-based enchantments best -- showing a trait similar to Proto-Canaanite -- though more study is needed to indicate this for certain.

Finally, we get to the question I hope you have already asked yourselves: how exactly does potion-based activation function in terms of intent? We know from our nearly four years of study that intent (and therefore ideograms) play a tremendous role in script-based magic. When the activation method is a spell, it is easy to identify when the intent comes into play. It is part of your focus, or concentration, when you cast the required activation spell.

With potion-based magical activation, the intent component is more difficult. While it is not a common practice in modern Western potioneering, it is possible to imbue a potion with intent. However, it is not for the faint of heart. To do so requires focusing on the magical intent of all of the runes you intend to activate with the potion, meaning that each batch must be created separately. All in all, it’s a rather complicated venture… but that’s to be expected at this point in your studies. There is no incantation, and the wand movement can be adapted to fit your needs.⁷ Though, as you can imagine, this moment of potion brewing requires intense focus and ability.

Closing
That’s quite enough for today. You have plenty to think about, and even more to practice and research before our next class, including another article in the ABJAD titled Rediscovery and Renown: The Magic of Phoenician. On that topic, next week we will wrap up our loose ends with regards to Phoenician script-based magic, specifically focusing on the barriers that stand in the way of the rediscovery process, as well as talk about how this ties into issues with rediscovered ancient magic as a whole. In addition, I will begin to force you to think about your future after Hogwarts. I suggest you come to class with your ambitions bared.

Footnotes

1. Do note, though, that like other scripts, occasionally one area or culture used the script for longer, whereas in other cases Phoenician was abandoned well before this. There is also a prevailing theory that the script might have been used slightly longer than this, though only for magical purposes.
2. If you remember our discussion during Lesson Five of last year, indigo (or generally a purple color) was very much in demand in North Africa (Egypt), the Mediterranean, and the Middle East at large. The demand was so high that scribes were often not able to get their hands on actual dyes and therefore replicated the prestigious hue with magic. The Phoenician desire to create a purple ink of their own was very much a part of this same indigo craze.
3. For those of you that may have run afoul of a Confundus Charm, yes, that individual was me.
4. They may have also used a slightly altered, thicker variant used as a paint on pottery, rather than apply ink to vases, plates, and jugs.
5. Those of you who have been paying attention in Magical Art will note that the process of glazing would have completely solved the problems described here. However, glazing was not as popular (or, better to say nonexistent) before 1300 B.C.E. Even after this period, it was not always done, and it appears to magiarchaeologists and anthropologists that magical spells were preferred to traditional glazing, though they did not protect against fire and extreme temperatures.
6. Traces of magic were detected (much like as we discussed in our study of Rongorongo), but because of the interference with faint magic from other ancient charms and curses that were not script-based (which did not dissipate with the fire though weakened considerably over time) it was difficult for curse-breakers and other researchers to notice.
7. After all, as Professor Penrose has mentioned, wand movements are only required to direct your magic out of you and into your wand and the world around you. They are not wholly necessary, should you have the ability to train your mind. Practically speaking, it would also not be advisable to attempt to create an entirely different wand movement for each possible intention of every existing Phoenician combination. Your intent will just have to be enough.

Original lesson written by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and  here