How Hebrew Came to Be Written From Right to Left

Edward Grossman writes from San Francisco:

“Could you explain why and how Hebrew came to be written from right to left? And how did/do right-handed scribes using pens or quills avoid smearing the text?”

To take Mr. Grossman’s first question first, one of the things that can be learned from the recently deciphered 1700 BCE Canaanite inscription found on an unearthed ivory comb in southwest Israel, and discussed in my previous column, is that Hebrew, in its most protean stage, was not exclusively written from right to left. Nor was it exclusively written from left to right. The comb’s two rows of seventeen letters were written in both directions. As described by the Jerusalem Journal of Archeology article on which my column was based: