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Gardiner, Inscriptions of Sinai, Part I

AN HONEST MISTAKE? On another Khebeded stela (Stela 92; one face shown here), our author noted an interesting scribal mistake that suggests the Canaanite prince Khebeded already knew the first alphabet. Although Khebeded wrote this text in Egyptian, many of the hieroglyphic signs he used are either poorly carved or incorrect. One sign in particular (highlighted in orange), bears a remarkable resemblance to the box-like Proto-Sinaitic letter bêt (B), rather than its hieroglyphic character. Did Khebeded confuse the new letter bêt with the original hieroglyphic “house” sign on whose shape it had been based?