 The earliest known alphabetic (or "proto-alphabetic") inscriptions are the so-called Proto-Sinaitic (or Proto-Canaanite) script sporadically attested in the Sinai and in Canaan in the late Middle and Late Bronze Age.The script was not widely used until the rise of new Semitic kingdoms in the 13th and 12th centuries BC.The Phoenician alphabet is a direct continuation of the "Proto-Canaanite" script of the Bronze Age collapse period.