Archaeologist Glenn Schwartz unearthed four ancient clay fragments in northern Syria bearing inscriptions that may be the earliest known alphabetic writings.

The alphabetic writing system was identified on finger-length clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in an ancient Syrian city known as Tell Umm-el Marra. The artifacts came to light during a 16 ...

Most of the world’s languages are written alphabetically; in an alphabetic writing system the basic components represent sounds only without any reference to meaning. For example, the letter “b” in ...

Egyptian hieroglyphics were used 3,250 years before our era, but there is an even older precursor: the cuneiform writing of ...