Between1994 and 2010, American and Dutch archaeologistsexcavatedan Early Bronze Age site east of Aleppo, Syria.
Alphabets revolutionized writing by making it accessible to people beyond royalty and the socially elite.
The new finding could change this.
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.© Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University
Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE, Schwartz said.
Without a means to translate the writing, we can only speculate.
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The four clay cylinders are inscribed with what might be the oldest known evidence of alphabetic writing. Image: Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University
