The Paleo-Hebrew script (Hebrew: הכתב העברי הקדום), (𐤐𐤋𐤏𐤉 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah. It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Bible. Due to its similarity to the Samaritan script, the Talmud states that the Samaritans still used this script. The Talmud described it as the "Livonaʾa script" (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: לִיבּוֹנָאָה, romanized: Lībōnāʾā), translated by some as "Lebanon script". It has also been suggested that the name is a corrupted form (with the letters nun and lamed accidentally swapped) of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus. Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" for the script follows the suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum, who in 1954 argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician [from Northern Canaan, today's Lebanon] to the script of the Hebrews [from Southern Canaan, today's Israel-Palestine] is hardly suitable". The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets are two slight regional variants of the same script.
The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription (KAI 191), found in 1870, and described at the time as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE.
