The world's oldest known system of writing was influenced by symbols used for trade — engravings found on cylinders used in the exchange of farming produce and textiles, a new study suggests. The ...

While historians know roughly where and when humans first began writing, they have many unanswered questions about how and why the practice arose. Now, a new paper suggests that one of the world’s ...

Ancient symbols, dating back 40,000 years, have been discovered in caves around the globe. These symbols could represent the earliest form of written language, providing a fresh perspective on the ...

(CNN) — Researchers have uncovered links between the precursor to the world’s oldest writing system and the mysterious, intricate designs left behind by engraved cylindrical seals that were rolled ...

Stored in one of the various cabinets and cases that make up the Penn Museum archives, there's a stone tablet that's barely 3 inches on each side. It easily fits in the palm of one's hand. It's ...

Before the invention of alphabets, literacy was the purview of Egyptian and Mesopotamian scribes trained in complex writing systems that could take years to master. Proto-Sinaitic script, which uses a ...

UC Riverside Anthropologist Karl Taube helped confirm the earliest writing in the New World, carved into the flat surface of a stone block in a in a remote region in southern Veracruz, Mexico. The ...

SANTA CRUZ — While a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, UC Santa Cruz history professor Elaine Sullivan unearthed ancient artifacts in Syria marked with an alphabetic script whose meaning ...

In a region in Georgia, a mysterious Bashplemi tablet has surfaced with a brand-new writing system that was never seen before. And it may alter current beliefs about ancient writing systems ...