Although far from the oldest writing we have found, these cylinders are 500 years older than any previously known example of alphabetic script, if that is indeed what they carry.
A 4,400-year-old discovery in Syria may rewrite history. Clay cylinders with symbols, predating Egyptian scripts, suggest the alphabet's true birthplace was Tell Umm-el Marra.
Long before the “A, B, C Song” — built upon the Latin alphabet — and the alphas, betas and gammas of Ancient Greek, cultures around the world were communicating with one another. The Sumerians of ...