"Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE," Schwartz said. "But our artifacts are older and from a different area on the map, suggesting ...

The writing was etched onto clay cylinders discovered during a dig at an ancient Syrian city ... "Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 ...

Schwartz discovered the finger-sized cylinder, along with three others bearing similar etchings, in a tomb at Tell Umm el-Marra, an ancient city ... narrative of how the alphabet was introduced ...

Symbols on finger-sized clay objects discovered during dig at ancient city of Umm el-Marra could be earliest known alphabet (Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University) This form of writing may have ...

The world’s oldest alphabetic writing on clay cylinders unearthed in Syria. Credit: Egisto Sani / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Archaeologists have uncovered what may be the oldest examples of alphabetic writing in ...

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 ...

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. What appears to be ...

“It changes the entire narrative of how the alphabet was introduced,” Professor Schwartz was quoted by Scientific American. The writing is on clay cylinders, each of which is about the thickness of a ...