ON THE ORIGINS OF THE ALPHABET: An interesting debate was started up in the March/April issue of BAR by Orly Goldwasser on whether the alphabet was invented in elite scribal circles or (her position) in a working-class environment. Anson Rainey and now Christopher Rollston have replied, taking the contrary view. Much of the discussion is online:
Orly Goldwasser, How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs (mostly behind a subscription wall).
Anson Rainey, with Goldwasser's rebuttal, Who Really Invented the Alphabet—Illiterate Miners or Educated Sophisticates? (BAR website).
Christopher Rollston, FEATURED POST by Christopher Rollston: The Probable Inventors of the First Alphabet (ASOR blog).
Note also the recent discussion of The Origins of ABC in a post at John Boardley's I Love Typography blog.