Last November, an international team of archaeologists discovered the world’s oldest alphabet on a 4,400-year-old clay cylinder in a Syrian tomb. The find, dating to the Early Bronze Age, reshaping the history of written language as it predates all known alphabetic scripts by five centuries.

The clay cylinders, just four centimeters in length, were dated to 2400 BCE using carbon-14 dating techniques, making them the oldest known alphabetic writing by 500 years. The discovery was unveiled by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Amsterdam at the 2024 American Society of Overseas Research’s Annual Meeting in Boston. It challenges long-held theories that “the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE,” said Glenn Schwartz, Professor of Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University. He is also the lead of the excavation team that discovered the cylinders.

Before this discovery, the Proto-Sinaitic script remained the earliest known example of alphabetic writing, inscribed on stones in the Sinai Peninsula. Other ancient writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, are classified as proto-writing systems and date back 5,200 years. Similarly, cuneiform – another form of proto writing – was discovered in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk and originated around 3400 BCE. However, these systems are not considered alphabets because proto writing conveyed symbolic meaning rather than representing phonetics.

The discovery of the clay cylinders at Tell Umm el-Marra challenges these long-held assumptions. Found in a well-preserved tomb at this significant archaeological site in Western Syria, the cylinders shed new light on the development of writing. The tomb’s entrance was adorned with the word “silanu,” which Schwartz believes is a name. Inside, archaeologists uncovered a treasure trove of artifacts, including gold jewellery, pottery, a spearhead, and the lightly baked inscribed cylinders. “These artifacts reveal that the alphabet may have developed much earlier and in a different area than previously thought,” added Schwartz.

So, what makes the new script an alphabet? For a writing system to qualify as an alphabet, its characters must represent both phonetics (how the character sounds) and meaning. “This new discovery shows that people were experimenting with new communication technologies much earlier and in a different location than we had imagined before now,” said Schwartz. While the script on the cylinder remains undeciphered, the team believe the clay cylinders represent an earlier, distinct alphabetic system.

Professor Schwartz hopes that further excavations at Tell Umm el-Marra will yield additional clues. He believes they may even uncover a “Rosetta Stone”-like artifact to decode the inscriptions. As researchers continue their work, the cylinders offer tantalizing clues to the inventive spirit of Early Bronze Age societies, opening new doors to the study of early human culture.