Richard Steiner, a professor of Semitic languages at Yeshiva University in New York, has deciphered an ancient inscription found in a chamber under a pyramid south of Cairo. The inscription, which uses Egyptian characters to represent early Canaanite or proto-Hebraic speech, had been undeciphered by Egyptologists for nearly a century. Steiner dates the script to a period from the 30th to 25th centuries B.C. because of its similarities to a Semitic text used by Canaanites at the same time ("Egyptian Tomb Inscription May Bear Oldest Proto-Hebrew Text Yet," Associated Press, Jan. 25, 2007).

The inscription is a magic incantation to protect the sarcophagus from a snake invasion. It shows the cultural connections between the inhabitants of Canaan at the time and the Egyptians. The translated Semitic is an archaic example of what later developed into the Phoenician and Hebrew languages.