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We all know the alphabet - alpha - beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, itself developed from the Phoenician, the Phoenician being the ‘mother of all western writing systems’.
The origins of writing is one of The Elements, a network of ideas that are being interwoven into an epic mystery-thriller story universe of the 20th century of the same name. The following is an amalgamation of sources from Wiki:
In her book, "A History of Sinai", Lina Eckenstein theorized that Serabit el-Khadim was the historical site of Mt. Sinai where Moses received the 10 commandments. This theory comes in no small part to the site containing a temple of Hathor which is believed to be the Golden Calf idol constructed by the Hebrews while Moses was on the mountain top.
Thirty incised graffiti in a "Proto-Sinaitic script" shed light on the history of the alphabet in pre-phoenician times. Because the script co-existed with Egyptian hieroglyphs, it is likely that it represented true writing, but this is by no means certain.
The mines were worked by prisoners of war from southwest Asia who presumably spoke a Northwest Semitic language, such as the Canaanite that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew. The writing is believed to represent the language of this people.
The Sinai inscriptions are best known from carved graffiti and votive texts from a mountain in the Sinai called Serabit el-Khadim and its temple to the Egyptian goddess Hathor (ḥwt-ḥr). The mountain contained turquoise mines which were visited by repeated expeditions over 800 years. Many of the workers and officials were from the Nile Delta, and included large numbers of "Asiatics", speakers of the Canaanite language that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew, who had been allowed to settle the eastern Delta.
The Egyptian reads The beloved of Hathor, the mistress of turquoise, and according to Gardiner's translation, the Proto-Sinaitic reads m’hb‘l (the beloved of the Lady; m’hb beloved), with the final t of bʿlt (Lady) not surviving.
Egyptologist Orly Goldwasser believes the script was most likely invented during the reign of pharaoh Amenemhet III of the Twelfth Dynasty.
It was generally accepted that the language of the inscriptions was Semitic, that the script had a hieratic prototype and was ancestral to the Semitic alphabets, and that the script was itself acrophonic and alphabetic (more specifically, a consonantal alphabet or abjad). The word baʿlat (Lady) lends credence to the identification of the language as Semitic. However, the lack of further progress in decipherment casts doubt over the other suppositions, and the identification of the hieratic prototypes remains speculative.
Expeditions of Pharaoh Amenemhet IV
Pharaoh Amenemhat IV sent four expeditions to the turquoise mines of the Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai are dated to his reign by in-situ inscriptions. The latest took place in his 9th year on the throne and could be the last expedition of the Middle Kingdom since the next inscription dates to Ahmose I's reign, some 200 years later.
Amenemhat IV sent another expedition to mine amethyst in the Wadi el-Hudi in the south of Egypt. Farther south, three Nile-records are known from Kumna in Nubia which are explicitely dated to his years 5, 6 and 7 on the throne, showing that the Egyptian presence in the region was maintained during his lifetime.
Important trade relations must have existed during his reign with the city of Byblos, on the coast of modern-day Lebanon, where an obsidian and gold chest as well as a jar lid bearing Amenemhat IV's name have been found. A gold plaque showing Amenemhat IV offering to a god may also originate from there.
Recently, continuing excavations at Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea coast have produced two wooden chests and an ostracon inscribed with a hieratic text (priestly writing) mentioning an expedition to the fabled Land of Punt in the year 8 of Amenemhat IV, under the direction of the royal scribe Djedy.
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script#Proto-Sinaitic_script
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