While early writing systems emerged in Mesopotamia and Egypt over 5,000 years ago, they used symbols rather than a bona fide alphabet, which appeared significantly later, around 1800 BCE.

Alphabetic language, or written language made of individual letters, is a newer invention, but now, archaeologists believe they have discovered the “oldest known alphabet” ever found.

The Canannites invented the first alphabet about 3,800 years ago. The letters, instead of hieroglyphics like those used in Egypt, became the basis for written Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

The alphabet was invented by illiterate Canaanite miners in ancient Egypt who turned elaborate hieroglyphs into basic letters 4,000 years ago, a study claimed.

An engraving on an ancient lice comb is potentially the oldest known sentence written using an alphabet. The ivory comb bears a sentence in an early Canaanite script, estimated to date back almost ...

To say that mystery glyphs look like “early alphabetic letters” is to say that they look like crude versions of hieroglyphs 24 April, p 15. Finding such hieroglyphs in Syria 850 years before ...

In 2004, while she was still a meticulous young graduate student, Elaine Sullivan made a discovery that would deepen the history of human writing. Using trowels and brushes to remove ancient soil at ...

The ancient Egyptians invented one of the earliest known writing systems used from around 3000 BC. The symbols they used were called hieroglyphs, which comes from a Greek word meaning ‘sacred ...

It's an ancient alphabet having a modern moment. From Alpha to Omicron - SBS takes a look at why the World Health Organisation is using the Greek alphabet to name COVID-19 variants.