# Orly Goldwasser · Person

> Egyptologist who argued that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai. In Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/people/FIG0DEDQAQ6N4YE/orly-goldwasser  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[People](https://mysteriesdept.com/people)Orly Goldwasser

Person · in 1 mystery

# Orly Goldwasser

Egyptologist who argued that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai

[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[1 event][2 sources]

Orly Goldwasser is israeli Egyptologist, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose 2006 and later papers argue for invention of the alphabet by non-literate Canaanites at Serabit el-Khadim under Amenemhat III, and appears in the record of Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet as egyptologist who argued that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai.

One event on the site involves Goldwasser: Orly Goldwasser argues that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai; Hamilton publishes the sign catalogue (2006).

Two questions rest in part on what Goldwasser did or said, among them “Who invented the alphabet, and could they read Egyptian?”, which stands open: 4 answers, none ahead.

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## In the mysteries

**Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet**

Egyptologist who argued that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai · 1 event

[The mystery ](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)Open: 4 answers, none ahead

[Do any of the letters require hieratic (cursive) rather than monumental hieroglyphic prototypes?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDWBWXGNHQ/do-any-of-the-letters-require-hieratic-cursive-rather-than)No evidence yet: No evidence yet

## What Orly Goldwasser did 1

2006[Orly Goldwasser argues that Canaanite workers who could not read Egyptian invented the alphabet in Sinai; Hamilton publishes the sign catalogue](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/events/EVT0DEDS10QWBKF/orly-goldwasser-argues-that-canaanite-workers-who-could-not)

## Sources 2

[Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs. Horus is Hathor? The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHWX0987P/canaanites-reading-hieroglyphs-horus-is-hathor-the-invention)

SRC

[The Miners Who Invented the Alphabet: A Response to Christopher Rollston](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDJ6H344AD/the-miners-who-invented-the-alphabet-a-response-to)

SRC

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Orly Goldwasser [Person FIG0DEDQAQ6N4YE]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/FIG0DEDQAQ6N4YE
```

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Key

**FIG** 0DEDQAQ6N4YE

Record

Person

Occupation

Proponent of the illiterate-inventors thesis (2006, 2010, 2012)

Identity

Israeli Egyptologist, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose 2006 and later papers argue for invention of the alphabet by non-literate Canaanites at Serabit el-Khadim under Amenemhat III

In

[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)

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