Archaeology · 4 · David
The alphabet was born among Canaanite laborers
The earliest alphabetic writing appears in Egypt around the eighteenth century BCE, including graffiti from a Sinai mining camp where Canaanite captives worked.
Revolutions in writing can start at the margins.
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Instead of hundreds of signs, the alphabet needed only a couple dozen. A version from Phoenicia gave rise to Hebrew and Aramaic, and also to Greek and Latin, so the letters you're reading descend from the Canaanite coast.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 67–68
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