Meet the oldest known alphabet! Archaeologists excavating an ancient tomb in Syria may have made one of the most exciting discoveries in human history.
Four finger-long clay cylinders discovered by archaeologist Glenn Schwartz and his team from Johns Hopkins University have sparked great interest thanks to the writings on them. According to the researchers, these writings open the door to brand new questions about the origin of the alphabet.
It was previously thought that the oldest known alphabet emerged in Egypt and its surroundings around 1900 BC. However, this new finding indicates that the way humanity communicates may have a much older and different story. On the other hand, archaeologists think that this writing was a means of communication that could have appealed not only to the royal elite but also to ordinary people. This is where the discovery becomes even more fascinating. Not only kings and queens, but also ordinary farmers, merchants or artisans may have communicated using this oldest alphabet. According to the researchers, this means a kind of “democratization” of writing.
The team that made the discovery has been conducting archaeological studies in the Umm el-Marra region in western Syria for about 16 years. The tombs unearthed here date back to 3000 BC. It bears traces of a civilization dating back to between 3500 and 2000 BC. However, this new discovery is more striking than all previous discoveries. According to the researchers, one of the surprising aspects of the work is that the oldest alphabet examples are so well preserved.
The writings on the clay cylinders have not yet been fully deciphered. However, scientists think that these writings may be a type of labeling system that carries information about the contents of the containers or the people they belonged to.
Analyses conducted using the radiocarbon dating method confirmed that this writing dates back to around 2400 BC. This indicates that it is approximately 500 years earlier than the oldest known alphabet.
The “oldest known alphabet” provides many clues about how people shaped their lifestyles, thoughts and relationships at that time. It also shows that the alphabet being accessible not only to the upper classes but also to wider segments of society was an important turning point in the evolution of writing.
The discovery in question had a great impact not only in the world of archaeology but also in the fields of history and paleography in general. The origin of the alphabet, which is one of the turning points in human history, may have a much more complicated story than we think. So what awaits us in the rest of this story? Will it be possible to understand this writing?
According to researchers, it is currently very difficult to decipher the writing. For this, we need to have more examples and a tool that can decipher the writing. However, this does not mean that scientists have stopped. Dr. Schwartz and his team continue their work without slowing down. Perhaps one day we will fully understand this writing and learn how the first civilizations communicated.