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 / ...

For decades, it's been a common belief that the Ancient Egyptians were responsible for the very first alphabet. Now, a shocking finding challenges this assumption, pushing back the age of the first ...

In late November, speaking at an academic conference in Boston, veteran archaeologist Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University made a startling claim: Four tiny clay cylinder-shaped seals, which had ...

Stephen has degrees in science (Physics major) and arts (English Literature and the History and Philosophy of Science), as well as a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication. Stephen has degrees 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. What appears to be evidence ...

The oldest known alphabetic writing has been found etched onto finger-length clay cylinders unearthed from a tomb in Syria. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in the US dated the writing to ...

Where did we get the A-B-C order of our alphabet and that song children sing to memorize their letters? That’s an interesting question. You people just seem to scintillate lately. The history of the ...