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Oldest legible sentence written with first alphabet is about head lice

9 November 2022

The early adopters of the alphabet cared about their personal hygiene, judging by the inscription on the side of an ancient ivory comb

AI can help historians restore ancient texts from damaged inscriptions

9 March 2022

An AI tool developed by DeepMind can help historians restore ancient Greek texts with 72 per cent accuracy, and date inscriptions to within 30 years of their true age

Origins of Japanese and Turkish language family traced back 9000 years

10 November 2021

Millet farmers living 9000 years ago in what is now north-east China may have spoken a proto-Transeurasian language that gave rise to Japanese, Turkish and other modern tongues

The alphabet may have been invented 500 years earlier than we thought

16 April 2021

Many researchers think the alphabet emerged in Egypt about 3800 years ago – but possible examples of alphabetic writing from a 4300-year-old site in Syria challenge that idea

Who invented the alphabet? The untold story of a linguistic revolution

5 February 2020

One of civilisation’s most revolutionary inventions was long thought to be the brainchild of ancient Egyptian scribes. But its true creators may have been far less glamorous

Hieroglyphics

4 February 2020

Hieroglyphics is a writing system invented in Egypt around 5000 years ago.

We thought the Incas couldn't write. These knots change everything

26 September 2018

A lost language encoded in intricate cords is finally revealing its secrets – and it could upend what we know about Incan history and culture

World's most-spoken languages may have arisen in ancient Iran

23 May 2018

About 3 billion people speak Indo-European languages like English and Hindustani, and it seems the first such tongue was spoken south of the Caucasus mountains