Proto-Sinaitic script

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The Proto-Sinaitic script is a Middle Bronze Age writing system known from a small corpus of about 30–40 inscriptions and fragments from Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as two inscriptions from Wadi el-Hol in Middle Egypt. Together with about 20 known Proto-Canaanite inscriptions, it is also known as Early Alphabetic, i.e. the earliest trace of alphabetic writing and the common ancestor of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, the Ancient South Arabian script and the Phoenician alphabet, which led to many modern alphabets including the Greek alphabet and, subsequently, the Latin alphabet. According to common theory, Canaanites or Hyksos who spoke a Canaanite language repurposed Egyptian hieroglyphs to construct a different script. The earliest Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions are mostly dated to between the mid-19th (early date) and the mid-16th (late date) century BC. The principal debate is between an early date, around 1850 BC, and a late date, around 1550 BC. The choice of one or...

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