The Alphabet is widely held to have been 'invented' once [cf, Diringer, THE ALPHABET: A KEY TO THE HISTORY OF MANKIND (1968: third edition) volume 1, p145]. Theories of its origin, however, remain varied and debatable.
In 1995 I discovered that several letters of the Alphabet correspond in their positions within the alphabetic sequence, to focal phases of the moon in the lunar sequence.
The lunar cycle begins with two nights of darkness, when no lunar phase is visible in the sky.
The first letter of the alphabet 'A' (ALPHA, ALEPH) when laid on its side as in the earliest alphabetic inscriptions, incorporates a vertex or sighting scope, with a cross-stroke through it -- arguably signifying 'nothing visible'.
The second letter 'B' (BETA, BETH) resembles a doubled vertex with a cross-stroke through it -- signifying 'nothing visible' on the second night.
The third letter 'C' (GAMMA, GIMEL) depicts the crescent moon -- which appears on the third night of the lunar sequence.
The waxing half-moon which occurs on the ninth night of the lunar cycle is figured in the eighth letter of the early alphabet, 'Θ' THETA (TETH in the Hebrew alphabet) -- constructed as a circle bisected, like the half-moon, by its diameter.
The first full moon occurs on the 15th night of the lunar sequence. The 15th letter is 'O' (OMICRON, AYIN).
Few people realize that two nights of full moon are evident in every lunar cycle. The 16th letter, 'Π' PI (PE in the Hebrew alphabet), outlines the square constructed on the idealized diameter of the full moon -- a 'squared' circle to distinguish it from the character used to symbolize the first full moon ('O'). The square was appropriate for the 16th night of the lunar cycle because the number 16 embodies a perfect square whose area equals its perimeter [4 x 4 = 4 + 4 + 4 + 4]. Which is why 'pi' continues to signify 'the relation of diameter to circumference' in mathematics.
Night 17 ushers in the first waning phase of the cycle, an ominous harbinger of decay for the ancient observer. Letter 17, our 'Q' (ancient QOPH or KAPH), depicts a full moon trailing a telltale descender -- figuring downfall.
And letter 22, 'X' CHI, presents an image of crossed diameters, reflecting the waning half-moon on night 23 (the 45-degree waxing oblique 'cancelled' by the 315-degree waning oblique).
The alphabet, in other words, appears to have been conceived as a mnemonic of lunar cycle.
These focal lunar letters display three key points of convergence:
FORMAL the letters appear to be drawn from their corresponding lunar phases;
ORDINAL both fall in the same places in their relative sequences; and
SPECTRAL they involve the only phases in the lunation identifiable on sight.
Those interested in further details will find nine free abstracts and a video seminar at Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=drumbolis&sort=-downloads
Responses to an earlier version of this precis at Naked Scientists may also be of interest [http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=f5316438854cf91220a1ff907f66ebf5&topic=34818.0
This previously unrecognized (or at least unrecorded) insight has further been explored in greater detail in five volumes [currently out of print]:
GOD'S WAND: THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET (2001)
SHROUDED IN SCRIPTURE (2004)
GOD'S SHADOW: A CHRONOLOGICAL SUPPLEMENT OF SAMPLE FIGURES ILLUSTRATING A CONTINUOUS TRADITION OF COVERT LUNAR NOTATION (2004)
MYTH AS MATH: CALENDRICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN THE MOSAIC CENSUS OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL (2007)
INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESTORING THE ANCIENT WISDOM: A PRIMER OF THE PYTHAGOREAN PRACTICUM (2009) a seminar guide among the above-mentioned freely accessible on-line abstracts [http://ia700109.us.archive.org/21/items/InstructionsForRestoringTheAncientWisdom/primer.pdf