The items included four clay cylinders, each about the size of a finger, engraved with eight distinct symbols. First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed “These inscriptions might ...

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. Credit: Glenn Schwartz, ...

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. (Credit: Glenn Schwartz, ...

Above: 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 (Credit: Glenn ...

The engraved symbols may be part of the earliest known alphabet. Credit: Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University At Umm-el Marra, the archaeologists uncovered tombs dating back to the Early ...

The engraved symbols may be part of the earliest known alphabet. What appears to be evidence of the oldest alphabetic writing in human history is etched onto finger-length, clay cylinders ...