The oldest known alphabet was found engraved on finger-length clay cylinders. They were found in a tomb in Syria, NOVA reported, citing the BGNES agency.
Researchers from the “Johns Hopkins“ in the US date the script to around 2400. BC, predating other known alphabetic scripts by about 500 years.
The discovery, which will be presented on August 21 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Overseas Studies, changes what we know about the origin and evolution of alphabets and their importance to early civilizations.
„Alphabetic writing changed the way people lived, how they thought, how they communicated,” says archaeologist Glen Schwartz, who is behind the discovery of the clay cylinder.
This form of writing may have revolutionized the language, making it accessible to people outside of royalty and the social elite, scholars believe.
Dr. Schwartz and his team are studying how early Middle Eastern urban areas developed in Syria and how the area's smaller cities arose.
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The team participated in a 16-year archaeological dig at Tell Um-el Mara, one of the first medium-sized ancient urban centers known to have emerged in western Syria. At this site, archaeologists have already uncovered tombs dating back to the Early Bronze Age between 3500 and 2000. etc.
In this well-preserved tomb, 6 skeletons, gold and silver ornaments, intact pottery, cooking vessels and a spearhead were found. Among these artifacts, the researchers found four lightly baked clay cylinders with what appeared to be alphabetic writing engraved on them.
„And this new discovery shows that humans were experimenting with new communication technologies much earlier and in a different place than we previously imagined,” said Dr. Schwartz.
Based on the small perforations on the clay cylinders, scientists suspect that they were probably attached to another object and served as a kind of label.
„Perhaps they detail the contents of the vessel, or perhaps where the vessel came from or who it belonged to. "Without a means of translating the inscription, we can only speculate," explained Dr. Schwartz.
Using carbon dioxide dating techniques, researchers have confirmed that the tombs, artifacts and writing are from around 2400 AD. etc. n. is.
This places the origin of the artifacts about 500 years before the oldest known alphabetic writing. “Previously, scholars believed that the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900. etc. n. is. But our artifacts are older and from a different area of the map, which suggests that the alphabet may have a completely different origin story than we thought, Schwartz adds.