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

No cursive, papyrus or administrative alphabetic text of the Middle Kingdom or early New Kingdom has been found; the…

No cursive, papyrus or administrative alphabetic text of the Middle Kingdom or early New Kingdom has been found; the early texts are votive graffiti and names.

Suggestive0

What it means

Key questionWho invented the alphabet, and could they read Egyptian?

4 answers, none ahead yet

Openunchanged

Answer this evidence bears onLiterate Semites in Egyptian service (Rainey, Rollston, Hamilton)

Counts against1 for, 1 against

Still possibleunchanged

Sources 2

Goldwasser's First Rebuttal (to Anson Rainey, "Who Really Invented the Alphabet?")

Goldwasser 2010

SRC

The Miners Who Invented the Alphabet: A Response to Christopher Rollston

Goldwasser 2012

SRC

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). No cursive, papyrus or administrative alphabetic text of the Middle Kingdom or early New Kingdom has been found; the… [Evidence EVD0DEEAVGEC6RA]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEEAVGEC6RA

@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0deeavgec6ra,
  title     = {No cursive, papyrus or administrative alphabetic text of the Middle Kingdom or early New Kingdom has been found; the…},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DEEAVGEC6RA},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEEAVGEC6RA}
}