Umm el-Marra Syria Grave Sticks 1150 BCE

Photo Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University. Letter assignments by Olmsted. Somehow the archaeologists see the letters SILANU, but of course can't translate it.

Clay Stick 1

(November 26, 2024)

These small clay sticks (5 cm long) was found on or in the top layers of the floor of a tomb at Tell el-Marra in Syria. This was an ancient city located between modern-day Aleppo and the Euphrates River. These sticks were assigned to a floor dating to 2400 BCE based on radiocarbon dating of some items found within it.

Yet the letter style is about a 1000 years younger being mostly Phoenician with a hint of Maltese given by the shape of the letter B. Based on its letter style this stick seems to have been created during the Great Drought of 1170-1120 BCE.

This was discovered on an 2004 archaeological dig led by Glenn Schwartz, an archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University. He discovered 4 in total along with three others bearing similar texts.

Translation in Akkadian (Med Text 66.1)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold, Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)
Letter style is mostly Phoenician (1170 BCE) with hints of early Maltese (letter B, 500 BC)

.... | Ku BuZu (Med 66.1.1)

In English

.... | Involve the fine-fabric (life network)

References

Stephanie Pappas (November 22, 2024) World’s Oldest Alphabet Found on an Ancient Clay Gift Tag. Scientific American. Online at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-oldest-alphabet-discovered/

Schwartz, Glenn M., Hans H. Curvers, Sally Dunham and Barbara Stuart 2003 A Third-Millennium BC Elite Tomb and Other New Evidence from Tell Umm el- Marra, Syria American Journal of Archaeology 107: 325-61

Photo Glenn Schwartz, Johns Hopkins University. Letter assignments by Olmsted.

Clay Stick 2

(November 26, 2024, updated March 17, 2025)

Translation in Akkadian (Med Text 66.2)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold, Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)
Here the letter B is a later style possibly dating this to about 800 BCE.

...S Ba'u Ḫa'u (Med 66.1.2)

In English

.... is nesting the fate-owls.

Comment: Notice the combination of the letters het (H) and ayin (') to indicate a single word. This is a rather rare occurrence.

Reference

Stephanie Pappas (November 22, 2024) World’s Oldest Alphabet Found on an Ancient Clay Gift Tag. Scientific American. Online at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-oldest-alphabet-discovered/

Clay Stick 3

(March 17, 2025)

Translation in Akkadian (Med Text 66.2)

(read left to right. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verbs are italic bold, Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)
Here the letter B is a later style possibly dating this to about 800 BCE.

Ku Ḫu Gi (Med 66.1.3)

In English

Involve Hu with emotion-energy.

Reference

Schwartz, Glenn M. (2010) EARLY NON-CUNEIFORM WRITING? THIRD-MILLENNIUM BC CLAY CYLINDERS FROM UMM EL-MARRA. In Opening the Tablet Box, Edited by Sarah C. Melville and Alice L. Slotsky; Brill - Leiden, Boston

Online at: https://www.academia.edu/1619051/Early_Non_Cuneiform_Writing_Third_Millennium_BC_Clay_Cylinders_from_Umm_el_Marra

Find Locations of Clay Sticks

The upper layer of the tomb floor to which the clay sticks were assigned is Bronze Age. Yet this tomb is multilayered with deposits above and below the clay sticks making dating the clay sticks based upon context problematic.

Reference

Schwartz, Glenn M. (2010) EARLY NON-CUNEIFORM WRITING? THIRD-MILLENNIUM BC CLAY CYLINDERS FROM UMM EL-MARRA. In Opening the Tablet Box, Edited by Sarah C. Melville and Alice L. Slotsky; Brill - Leiden, Boston

Online at: https://www.academia.edu/1619051/Early_Non_Cuneiform_Writing_Third_Millennium_BC_Clay_Cylinders_from_Umm_el_Marra

Find Locations of Clay Sticks

Reference

Schwartz, Glenn M. (2010) EARLY NON-CUNEIFORM WRITING? THIRD-MILLENNIUM BC CLAY CYLINDERS FROM UMM EL-MARRA. In Opening the Tablet Box, Edited by Sarah C. Melville and Alice L. Slotsky; Brill - Leiden, Boston

Online at: https://www.academia.edu/1619051/Early_Non_Cuneiform_Writing_Third_Millennium_BC_Clay_Cylinders_from_Umm_el_Marra