Editing Writing (section)

=== Egypt ===
[[File:Narmer Palette serpopard side.jpg|upright=.8|thumb|[[Narmer Palette]], with the two [[Serpopard]]s representing unification of [[Upper Egypt|Upper]] and [[Lower Egypt]], {{cx|3100&nbsp;BC}}]]
The earliest known [[hieroglyphs]] date back around 5,200 years, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called "Scorpion I" (Naqada IIIA period, {{cx|33nd century BC}}) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or the [[Narmer Palette]], dating to around {{cx|3100 BC}}.{{sfnp|Mattessich|2002}} The hieroglyphic script was [[logographic]] with phonetic adjuncts that included an effective [[Egyptian hieroglyph#Script|alphabet]]. The world's oldest deciphered sentence was found on a seal impression in the tomb of [[Seth-Peribsen]] at Abydos, dating to the Second Dynasty (28th or 27th century&nbsp;BC). There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Eras. By the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000.{{sfnp|Loprieno|1995|p=12}}

Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of [[scribe]]s.{{sfnp|Lipson|2004|page=9}} Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was complex and difficult to master.

Alphabetic writing is only known to have been invented once in human history. Around the mid-19th century&nbsp;BC, the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] emerged among a community of Canaanite turquoise miners in the [[Sinai Peninsula]].{{sfnp|Goldwasser|2010}} Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at a mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem, with symbols that stood for single consonant sounds rather than whole words or concepts{{snd}}the basis of an alphabetic system. It was not until the 12th to 9th centuries, however, that the alphabet took hold and became widely used.{{sfnp|Goldwasser|2010}}