The Phoenician alphabet started as the Proto-Sinaitic script. For context, if you're trying to write things down in the Sinai, you're logging the wares carried

The Phoenician alphabet started as the Proto-Sinaitic script. For context, if you're trying to write things down in the Sinai, you're logging the wares carried by caravans going back and forth from Egypt to the Phoenician heartland and back. You don't need the full range of hieroglyphs, so you don't need the training of an Egyptian priest. So you start with a reduced list of symbols. Someone in this position started using those symbols to register the sounds of the Semitic languages, and the rest is literally history.