Biblical Archaeology Review is the flagship publication of the Biblical Archaeology Society. For more than 40 years it has been making the world of archaeology in the lands of the Bible come alive for the interested layperson. Full of vivid images and articles written by leading scholars, this is a must read for anyone interested in the archaeology of the ancient Near East.
Since Semitic languages prefer not to begin words with consonant clusters, in words where that occurrence would be likely it is commen for an aleph to appear with a short vowel (thus, for example, what would be tsbac becomes ’ets-bac at the beginning of the word. See Moscati, p. 59, §9.14. Some very early Akkadian texts show a tendency to put an initial i- before words that otherwise would not be expected to have a prosthetic aleph.
Since Semitic languages prefer not to begin words with consonant clusters, in words where that occurrence would be likely it is common for an aleph to appear with a short vowel (thus, for example, what would be tsbac becomes ’ets-bac at the beginning of the word. See Moscati, p. 59, §9.14. Some very early Akkadian texts show a tendency to put an initial i- before words that otherwise would not be expected to have a prosthetic aleph.
