Four clay cylinders inscribed with what might be the oldest known evidence of alphabetic writing are 500 years older than other early alphabets, according to new research. Reading time 2 minutes ...

The earliest known example of alphabetic writing has been discovered etched onto small clay cylinders in an ancient Syrian tomb, which was excavated by researchers from Maryland’s Johns Hopkins ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A clay artifact, about the ...

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. What appears to be evidence ...

Just outside the Syrian city of Aleppo, archaeologists have discovered what may be the oldest example of alphabetic writing ever found. Ahmad Sofi via Unsplash UPDATE: This story has been updated to ...

Archaeologists have made a major breakthrough after discovering the oldest known alphabet from 4,400 years ago, challenging previously held beliefs. Glenn Schwartz, a professor of archaeology at Johns ...

Excavations at Umm el-Marra, a Bronze Age city in northern Syria, have revealed finger-sized clay cylinders with inscriptions that experts now believe may represent the earliest known alphabetic ...

What appears to be evidence of the oldest alphabetic writing in human history is etched onto finger-length, clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in Syria by a team of Johns Hopkins University ...