Ancient Alphabet: Proto-Sinaitic Script

This is a Umm el-Marra news story, published by Live Science, that relates primarily to archaeologist news.

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Sinaitic alphabet

Live Science

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Entertainment

What was the first alphabet in the world?

Summary

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A Bronze Age tomb at Umm el-Marra , near Aleppo , Syria , was discovered in November 2024 .

Radiocarbon dating suggests symbols were inscribed on the cylinders in about 2400 B.C. , about 500 years before the proto-Sinaitic script was developed.

But not everyone is convinced by the discovery, and some experts say alphabets were already in use 500 years earlier .

"I would really like more contemporary finds to help us understand what kind of writing traditions these inscriptions belong to," says archaeologist .

"The main problem is that if you only have similarities in sign shape and no other way of assessing the system, then certainty is difficult to achieve".

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