# Literate Semites in Egyptian service (Rainey, Rollston, Hamilton)

> Still possible: The inventors were Semites of some standing who knew Egyptian writing, hieratic included, and worked within the Egyptian administration.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/answers/ANS0DEDY8ZN88Z3/literate-semites-in-egyptian-service-rainey-rollston  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[Who invented the alphabet, and could they read Egyptian?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDW7RNZZQM/who-invented-the-alphabet-and-could-they-read-egyptian)Answer

Answer · Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet

# Literate Semites in Egyptian service (Rainey, Rollston, Hamilton)

The inventors were Semites of some standing who knew Egyptian writing, hieratic included, and worked within the Egyptian administration.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- Some letters will require hieratic prototypes.
- Alphabetic texts will eventually be found in scribal or administrative contexts of the Middle Kingdom.

## What would rule it out

- Demonstration that every letter has a monumental hieroglyphic prototype and none needs hieratic, together with continued absence of any scribal-context alphabetic text.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Writing in the Bronze Age was a skill of trained elites, and the Wadi el-Hol texts sit beside Egyptian inscriptions of…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEEATHYMEKG/writing-in-the-bronze-age-was-a-skill-of-trained-elites-and)

Suggestive

FOR

[No cursive, papyrus or administrative alphabetic text of the Middle Kingdom or early New Kingdom has been found; the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEEAVGEC6RA/no-cursive-papyrus-or-administrative-alphabetic-text-of-the)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[Who invented the alphabet, and could they read Egyptian?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDW7RNZZQM/who-invented-the-alphabet-and-could-they-read-egyptian)

Open4 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Literate Semites in Egyptian service (Rainey, Rollston, Hamilton) [Answer ANS0DEDY8ZN88Z3]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDY8ZN88Z3
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDY8ZN88Z3

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/sessions/SES0DEEC4SCCB1B/session-1-proto-sinaitic-and-wadi-el-hol-seeded-corpus) · 31 Oct 2026

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