Proto-Canaanite alphabet

Proto-Canaanite is the name given to the
 * (a) the Proto-Sinaitic script when found in Canaan, dating to about the 17th century BCD and later.
 * (b) a hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BC, with an undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic. No extant "Phoenician" inscription is older than 1000 BC. The Phoenician, Hebrew, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before that time.

About 20-25 proto-Canaanite inscriptions are known.

Name
Proto-Canaanite, also referred to as Proto-Canaan, Old Canaanite, or Canaanite, is the name given to either a script ancestral to the Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew script with undefined affinity to Proto-Sinaitic, or to the Proto-Sinaitic script (c. 16th century BC), when found in Canaan.

While no extant inscription in the Phoenician alphabet is older than c. 1050 BC, Proto-Canaanite is used for the early alphabets as used during the 13th and 12th centuries BC in Phoenicia. However, the Phoenician, Hebrew, and other Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before the 11th century BC, and the writing system is essentially identical.

Inscriptions
A possible example of Proto-Canaanite, the inscription on the Ophel pithos, was found in 2012 on a pottery storage jar during the excavations of the south wall of the Temple Mount by Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem. Inscribed on the pot are some big letters about an inch high, of which only five are complete, and traces of perhaps three additional letters written in Proto-Canaanite script.

Another possible Proto-Canaanite inscription is the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon, a 15-by-16.5-centimetre (5.9 in × 6.5 in) ostracon believed to be the longest Proto-Canaanite inscription ever found.

Other inscriptions include the Lachish Dagger, Gezer Sherd, Schechem Plaque, Nagila Sherd, Izbet Sartah Ostracon, Raddana Handle, Revadim Seal, El-Khadr Arrowheads 1-5, and the Ahiram Sarcophagus.