Serabit el-Khadem

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Dec 23 Blog

The Oldest Alphabetic Writing Ever Found?

Four small clay cylinders, discovered at the site of Umm el-Marra in northwestern Syria, may be etched with the oldest alphabetic writing ever discovered, predating […]

The early alphabetic inscription, dated to the mid-15th century B.C.E., was preserved on a tiny sherd of painted Late Bronze Age pottery imported from Cyprus. Image credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute/Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Mar 12 Blog

Early Alphabetic Writing Found at Lachish

By: BAS Staff

A newly published inscription from Tel Lachish in southern Israel is the earliest alphabetic writing discovered in the southern Levant. The fragmentary inscription features a mere handful of letters inscribed on a tiny pottery sherd, measuring just 4 by 3.5 cm. The sherd is dated by radiocarbon to the 15th century B.C.E., or the first part of the Late Bronze Age.

Jan 17 Blog

Copper and the History of the Alphabet in Ancient Egypt

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that an archaeological excavation at the site of Wadi al-Nasb in southern Sinai uncovered a 4,000-year-old administrative center. The […]

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