as nine hundred different characters are found in these writing systems, while English is written in twenty-six different letters. As a result, only trained scribes, who had devoted many years to study, knew how to read and write. Elite members of society employed scribes to read and write for them. But in everyday situations, people relied on spoken communication, not written texts. A cuneiform variant using a linear alphabetic system was developed at Ugarit, a seaport city at the extreme northern