<
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-oldest-alphabet-unearthed-ancient-syrian.html>
'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 researchers.
The writing, which is dated to around 2400 BCE, precedes other known alphabetic
scripts by roughly 500 years, upending what archaeologists know about where
alphabets came from, how they are shared across societies, and what that could
mean for early urban civilizations.
"Alphabets revolutionized writing by making it accessible to people beyond
royalty and the socially elite. Alphabetic writing changed the way people
lived, how they thought, how they communicated," said Glenn Schwartz, a
professor of archaeology at Johns Hopkins University who discovered the clay
cylinders. "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."
Schwartz will share details of his discovery on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the
American Society of Overseas Research's Annual Meeting.
A Near Eastern archaeologist, Schwartz studies how early urban areas developed
throughout Syria and how smaller cities emerged in the region. With colleagues
from the University of Amsterdam, he co-directed a 16-year-long archaeological
dig at Tell Umm-el Marra, one of the first medium-sized urban centers that
popped up in western Syria.
At Umm-el Marra, the archaeologists uncovered tombs dating back to the Early
Bronze Age. One of the best-preserved tombs contained six skeletons, gold and
silver jewelry, cookware, a spearhead, and intact pottery vessels. Next to the
pottery, the researchers found four lightly baked clay cylinders with what
seemed to be alphabetic writing on them.'
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/279-breakneck-solarisation/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
