Storiascopio · Era 4 of 12 · primary year 4
The Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
about 1800 BC · Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai (Egypt)
In short
In the turquoise mines of Sinai, where many men from Canaan worked, short inscriptions have been found with signs borrowed from hieroglyphs. Each picture stood only for the first sound of the word it showed: an ox's head, for example, stood for the first sound of the word ‘ox’ in their language. A few dozen signs were enough to write any word, instead of the hundreds of hieroglyphs. It is the most distant ancestor of our alphabet.
Why it matters A system with just a few signs put writing within reach of many more people.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Alphabet”
Where we are in the era “Sea civilisations”
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about 2000 BCEvent 3 of 25about 500 BC
Your turn
Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________
When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:
Tell it in your own words: what happened?
Draw the scene below.
storiascopio.com/en/event/the-proto-sinaitic-alphabet/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class