ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19691, 18 July 1927, Page 12

ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET.

SINAI INSCRIPTIONS. Fragments of the Sinai inscriptions, which are alleged to bo in the earliest Semitic script, were taken to the Cairo Museum by the HarvardMichigan Sinai expedition. These inscriptions, carved on statues and other stone monuments, were found by Sir Flinders Petrie, and copies were made by hand. They are recognised to be 3000 or 4000 years old, and in them. Dr. Alan Gardiner proposed to find the origin of the Phoenician, and consequently also of the Greek and our own alphabet. The subject has been the cause of vigorous controversy during the last 12 years. The debate took a new turn about two years ago, when Professor Hugo Grimme, of Munich, attempted to read into the inscriptions a contemporary allusion to Moses. Most' scholars have regarded Professor Grimme's theory as wholly fantastic. At the time that the Grimme theory was put forth Dr. Gardiner v.ged the need of further search in Sinai for more inscriptions of the same kind and that the stones left there by Sir Flinders Petrie should be taken to a museum where they can be accessible to all scholars. Dr. Gardiner and Professor Breasted had planned an expedition for 1924, but the project - had to be abandoned. There followed the HarvardMichigan expedition. In addition to obtaining fragments of the original inscriptions, the expedition found two others. With the assistance of these results, the vexed question of the origin of the alphabet may now be settled.