Official Text at Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai References Thera Eruption (1620 BCE)

Two early and still readable linear texts were found carved on the walls of turquoise mine L at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai of Egypt by William Petrie in 1906. They were never properly translated. These texts were inscribed within bas-relief steles indicating they were officially sanctioned texts. These texts reference a dimmed sun which would only have occurred during the 1620 BCE volcanic eruption on the Minoan island on Thera. This interpretation dates the texts to the Hyksos rule of northern Egypt. The existence of 2 Minoan Linear A phoneme signs within these texts indicates that they were composed by Minoan traders. The language of these texts is Akkadian and most of their signs are alphabetic (consonant followed by any vowel sound)