Aramaic square script

Aramaic square script is the 22-letter consonantal alphabet script that developed during the rule of the Achaemenid empire to write the Aramaic language. It is loosely called "square" because its letters can be fit into the shape of a square (rather than rectangle, etc).

The earliest known examples of square script are the Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca, a cache of Jewish and non-Jewish documents from the 5th to 4th centuries BCE. By the first centuries CE, Jews had begun to use square script or "ktav Ashuri" (Assyrian script) for all purposes, in both Hebrew and Aramaic. It is still the main script used for Modern Hebrew and other Jewish languages, and also survives in the square Maalouli alphabet used for Western Neo-Aramaic.