Oldest Known Alphabet Unearthed in Ancient City of Syria

Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the oldest examples of alphabetic writing in Syria. The discovery, made by a team from Johns Hopkins University, was announced at the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) annual meeting.

The team, led by Professor Glenn Schwartz, found small clay cylinders marked with possible alphabetic symbols during an excavation at an ancient tomb in Tell Umm-el Marra.

Tell Umm-el Marra was once a significant city in western Syria, known for being one of the region’s earliest urban centers. Professor Schwartz, an expert in ancient cities, co-led a 16-year-long dig at the site alongside researchers from the University of Amsterdam. The excavation uncovered tombs from the Early Bronze Age.

In addition to the marked cylinders, the team discovered six skeletons, jewelry made of gold and silver, cooking tools, a spearhead, and pottery that was still intact.

Oldest known alphabetic writing on clay cylinders

Near the pottery vessels, researchers found four small clay cylinders that appeared to have early alphabetic writing. The clay was only lightly baked, and each cylinder had a hole through it. Professor Glenn Schwartz suggested the objects might have been used as labels.

“Maybe they detail the contents of a vessel, or maybe where the vessel came from, or who it belonged to,” Schwartz explained. However, without the ability to translate the symbols, the exact purpose remains uncertain.

Alphabet discovered in Syria, dated to 2400-4400 BC. A minimum of 500 years before it was previously thought to have been invented in Ancient Egypt. pic.twitter.com/m5UyTl69M4

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Using carbon-14 dating, scientists determined the tombs, artifacts, and writing date back to around 2400 BCE. This makes the writing about 500 years older than the previously known earliest examples of alphabetic scripts.

The discovery challenges long-held beliefs about the origins of the alphabet and suggests a much earlier timeline for how alphabets spread between cultures.

‘Alphabetic writing changed the way people lived’

Scholars previously believed the alphabet originated in or near Egypt after 1900 BCE. However, these new artifacts are older and come from a different region.

This suggests the alphabet’s origin story may be completely different from what we thought, according to Professor Glenn Schwartz. He noted that the discovery shows people were experimenting with ways to communicate much earlier and in a different place than expected.

The implications go far beyond the artifacts’ age and location. Schwartz explained that alphabets transformed writing by making it accessible to more than just royalty and the elite.

“Alphabetic writing changed the way people lived, how they thought, how they communicated,” he said. This finding may offer fresh perspectives on how early urban societies developed and how writing shaped their social structures.