“Phoenicians pioneered a new style of writing that reproduced not images of the things described but the sounds used for them in speech--the first alphabetic script, As trade developed, writing became more common, for clay tablets had been replaced by an Egyptian technology: papyrus. The thinner more flexible material, made from the pith of reeds growing along the Nile, is the ancestor of the English word 'paper' (now being replaced by The Tablet).” TabletsPapyrusWriting Technology Book:Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World Source: Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World