# John Coleman Darnell 2005: Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hol: New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt > John Coleman Darnell, F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Marilyn J. Lundberg et al., 2005. 10 records on Mysteries Department cite it. Annual of the American Schools… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHW700H66/two-early-alphabetic-inscriptions-from-the-wadi-el-hol-new Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- [Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)John Coleman Darnell 2005 **0** # Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hol: New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt John Coleman Darnell, F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Marilyn J. Lundberg et al., 2005. **Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet** Article0 ## What it's used for here Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 59: 63-124. The full publication of the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions with photographs, drawings, sign-by-sign discussion and the Middle Kingdom (c. 1850-1800 BC) dating from the surrounding Egyptian inscriptions. ## Cited by on this site 10 records [The two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/artifacts/ART0DEDT6X8ASZB/the-two-wadi-el-hol-inscriptions) ART [An alphabetic ink inscription from Lachish comes from a stratum radiocarbon-dated to about 1460-1430 BC, so alphabetic…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEEAPTZ8456/an-alphabetic-ink-inscription-from-lachish-comes-from-a) Evidence EVD [Every secure word in the corpus (b'lt, l "to", 'l "god", rb "chief") is Northwest Semitic, and the descendant script…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEEA2P825X3/every-secure-word-in-the-corpus-blt-l-to-l-god-rb-chief-is) Evidence EVD [The Wadi el-Hol inscriptions, in the same script, sit among Egyptian inscriptions of the late Twelfth Dynasty, so the…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEE97CKFCYT/the-wadi-el-hol-inscriptions-in-the-same-script-sit-among) Evidence EVD [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) Evidence EVD [John and Deborah Darnell announce the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions found in 1993; the full edition follows in 2005](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/events/EVT0DEDS0Q28YQB/john-and-deborah-darnell-announce-the-two-wadi-el-hol) EVT [Two short alphabetic texts are cut beside Middle Kingdom Egyptian inscriptions on the Farshut desert road](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/events/EVT0DEDRMGQE6CZ/two-short-alphabetic-texts-are-cut-beside-middle-kingdom) EVT [John Coleman Darnell](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/people/FIG0DEDQBZWE1XG/john-coleman-darnell) FIG [Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic) The mystery article MYS [What do the two Wadi el-Hol inscriptions say, and in which direction do they read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDWBNCAYZC/what-do-the-two-wadi-el-hol-inscriptions-say-and-in-which) Question QST ## Cite it ``` John Coleman Darnell, F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Marilyn J. Lundberg, P. Kyle McCarter, & Bruce Zuckerman (2005). Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hol: New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3768583 ``` [Find it at jstor.org](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3768583) Key **SRC** 0DEDHW700H66 Kind Journal article Rights The publisher's Kept 31 Oct 2026, for editors Added by [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) The record Bibliographic records are CC0. Take this one as CSL-JSON, BibTeX or RIS. [CSL-JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDHW700H66/two-early-alphabetic-inscriptions-from-the-wadi-el-hol-new/csl.json)