Clay objects roughly the size of fingers were discovered during a dig at the ancient city of Umm el-Marra. The engraved symbols may be part of the earliest known alphabet. Image Credit: Glenn Schwartz / Johns Hopkins University
Society SyriaWe Have New Facts on the Alphabet’s Origin!
In a groundbreaking discovery, newly found clay objects containing alphabetic writing may be up to 500 years older than previously believed.
“Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE, but our artifacts are older and from a different area on the map, suggesting the alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we thought,” says professor of archaeology at Johns Hopkins University Glenn Schwartz.
In a moment that has upended what archaeologists know about where the alphabet came from, finger-length clay cylinders were recently excavated from a Syrian tomb. These cylinders, containing alphabetic writing, seem to date to 2400 BCE. This 16-year-old archaeological dig took place in Syria’s Tell Umm-el Marra, one of the first urban centres in Western Syria. Researchers also found six skeletons, gold and silver jewellery, cookware, a spearhead, and intact pottery vessels alongside the alphabetic writing. Though we cannot translate the writing using carbon-14 dating techniques, researchers have confirmed the relative age of the items, revealing that communities communicated in ways, periods, and locations previously undiscovered until now.
