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| | Jewish Heritage Online Magazine (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01) |
 | | Between the 17th and 12th centuries BCE, the primitive, pictographic alphabet was employed in Shehem, Gezer, Tel al-Hasi, Tel al-Ajul, Bet Mirsim, and Lahish. |
 | | Another large group, the so-called Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions (1500 BCE) were probably written by a colony of northwest Semitic slaves who worked in the mines in Wadi Ma'ara in the Sinai Peninsula. |
 | | It seems that this script generally served a religious function and may have been developed by the Canaanite priesthood. |
| www.jhom.com /topics/letters/ancient.html (666 words) |
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