Alphabets and writing

What exactly is an alphabet? How did the first ones arise? What was it like to communicate prior to the invention of the alphabet? What are the differences between alphabets and other writing systems? How does the use of an alphabet relate to a print culture? Questions such as these have been explored for more than two thousand years and have led to heated debates, arduous archaeological expeditions, and massive treatises on the development of writing.published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe