Biblical Archaeology Review

From the 12th century B.C.E., see the Qubur el-Walaydah fragment (northwest Negev) and the Izbet Sartah ostracon in Naveh, Early History of the Alphabet, pp. 36–37. For a recently discovered mid-tenth century B.C.E. example, see the Tel Zayit abecedary in Ron Tappy et al., “An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century from the Judaean Shephelah,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 344 (2006), p. 27. A stratified ostracon carrying a text (probably a letter) dated to the tenth century B.C.E.

Seth L. Sanders, “What Was the Alphabet For? The Rise of Written Vernaculars and the Making of Israelite National Literature,” Maarav 11 (2004), p. 44.

The god El is mentioned at least three times in the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions in Serabit (Sinai 377, 378, 363), and once in Wadi el-Hôl. The god El plays a central role in the Book of Judges. See recently André Lemaire, The Birth of Monotheism—The Rise and Disappearance of Yahwism (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2007), pp. 14–17.

John C. Darnell, “Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hôl. New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt” (together with: Meredith S. Chesson et al., “Results of the 2001 Kerak Plateau Early Bronze Age Survey”), Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 59 (Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005), p. 91.

Dated to year 13 of Amenemhet III.

Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Script, p. 242 (after Huehnergard).

See recently Anson F. Rainey, “Review of The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, by G.J. Hamilton,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 354 (2009), p. 85.

Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts, p. 84.

One example is known from an Egyptian inscription in Tell el-Daba and another from Wadi Gasus.

See Orly Goldwasser, “Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs: Horus Is Hathor?—The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai,” Egypt & Levant 16 (2006), pp. 121–160 for a detailed table with all references.