A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet ...

Discover Syria's 2400 BCE alphabet, the oldest known alphabetic writing, reshaping the history of the alphabet's origins.

The early writing appears to date to around 2400 B.C.—preceding the previous most bygone examples by roughly 500 years.

Archaeological discoveries indicate that alphabetic writing dates back 500 years earlier than previously believed. What ...

Found etched into clay cylinders in Syria, the strange symbols date to around 2400 B.C.E.—500 years before other known ...