With so many ancient texts around the world ... The proto-Sinaitic script developed into the Phoenician alphabet, which, in turn, inspired the early Hebrew, Greek and Roman alphabets.

The knotty question of the origins of our alphabet has been ... excavation of the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish led by Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Michael Hasel ...

he wondered. Hebrew, which is read from right to left, likely originated sometime during the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., written and spoken by the Israelite tribes who settled in Canaan.