Researchers may have deciphered the oldest known example of alphabetic writing in the world. This inscription, which is probably a gift plate, is nearly 4500 years old.
A small clay cylinder discovered in a tomb in northern Syria bears the word Silano, which may be a noun. This mausoleum contains six skeletons and is located in the ancient site of “Tal Um Al-Mara” between Aleppo and the Euphrates River. Glenn SchwartzArchaeologist at Johns Hopkins University has discovered this cylinder and three other similar cylinders in this area.
Alphabets have made learning easier by breaking down words into individual vowels and consonants. Also, the alphabet usually has a small number between 20 and 40 letters. In contrast, earlier writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform, used hundreds of symbols to represent words or syllables.
Researchers thought that the first alphabet was created in Egypt 1900 BC
Previously, researchers believed that the world’s first alphabet was created around 1900 BC in the Sinai Peninsula in the Asian part of Egypt by people who spoke the Semitic language. This alphabet, called Niacina, was reinterpreted based on hieroglyphic symbols. However, new findings show that the process of using letters derived from hieroglyphs may have started much earlier in other regions of the Near East.
“This discovery completely changes our view of how the alphabet came about,” Schwartz told Scientific American. The discovered cylinders have small holes that were probably designed to pass thread and be used as plaques. He speculates that “Silano” may be the name of the sender or receiver of the goods that were placed with the dead in the tomb. These goods accompanied the inhabitants of the tomb in the afterlife. The tomb probably belonged to a rich and powerful family in the city.
The cylinders were discovered in 2004 and radiocarbon dating showed that the clay of the cylinders dates back to around 2400 BC. Schwartz published his findings in 2021 in the Italian journal Pasiphae, but it received little attention due to excessive caution in interpreting the carvings as letters of the alphabet. “I was probably too timid and shy,” he says.
