Oldest-known alphabet found — it existed 500 years before previous Middle East discovery: scientists

Word.

Researchers have discovered evidence of what they say is the world’s oldest alphabet, believed to have existed in the Middle East hundreds of years earlier than other ancient scripts.

The early human discovery dating back to 2400 BC was made by analyzing clay fragments at a 16-year-long archaeological dig, Syria’s bronze-aged Tell Umm-el Marra, east of Aleppo.

Evidence of the first written language was found at Syria’s Tell at Umm El-Marra archeological site. wmf

“Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BC,” said researcher Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University.

“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.”

Clay shards hold evidence that the earliest form of written language existed in modern Syria around 2400 BC, according to scientists. Johns Hopkins University

Carbon-dated tombs were uncovered at the site, featuring six skeletons as well as gold and silver jewelry, cookware, weapons and pottery. The team also discovered four clay cylinders containing a form of alphabetic print.

The clay objects — about the length of a finger — were perforated, and Schwartz believes they were strung together during their use and operated as an ancient label.

“Maybe they detail the contents of a vessel, or maybe where the vessel came from, or who it belonged to,” he said. “Without a means to translate the writing, we can only speculate.”

The Syrian region is about 875 miles north of the great pyramids of Giza, where ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics as written communication at least 500 years later.

Researchers suspect the clay writing was used as a label. jhu

Just south of Syria in modern-day Lebanon around the 11th century BC, the Phonecians — from whom the English word “phonics” derives — are credited with creating “the prototype for all alphabets in the world,” according to UNESCO.

“And this new discovery shows that people were experimenting with new communication technologies much earlier and in a different location than we had imagined before now,” said Schwartz.