c. 1850 BCE

Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions

At Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai, found by Hilda and Flinders Petrie in 1904-05, some 30-40 inscriptions use signs adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphs. They are dated c. 1850-1550 BCE, and whether the alphabet arose in Egypt or Canaan is disputed. Gardiner proposed a reading in 1916.