Moss writes, "The early writing systems were based on abstracting physical images...In Asia with ideograms and Egypt with hieroglyphics and cuneiform in Mesopotamia. In all these now literate societies, educated classes of scribes, writers and readers, developed to utilize the immense new power of the written word...But an equally revolutionary step in writing accurred right here [in Israel]. Early traces of this revolution were discovered in caves in the Sinai from around 1500 BCE. Someone had the brilliant idea that instead of using symbols to physically represent objects or ideas, what if the symbol just represented the initial sound of the word it depicted. It meant that instead of requiring thousands of characters to record language in written form, it could be accomplished with about twenty to thirty simple symbols! And thus the Alphabet was born.This breakthrough meant that insted of requiring years of hightly specialized study for exclusive and powerful elements of a society, anyone could learn to read and write in a few hours. The alphbet brought with it a tremendous impetus for the democratization of society." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.