In the 10th century B.C., in the hill country south of Jerusalem, a scribe carved his ABCs on a limestone boulder - actually, his aleph-beth-gimels, for the string of letters appears to be an early rendering of the emergent Hebrew alphabet.
Archaeologists digging in July at the site, Tel Zayit, found the inscribed stone in the wall of an ancient building. After an analysis of associated pottery and the position of the wall in the layers of ruins, the discoverers concluded that this was the earliest known specimen of the Hebrew alphabet and an important benchmark in the history of writing, they said this week.
If the discoverers are right, the stone bears the oldest reliably dated example of an abecedary - the letters of the alphabet written out from beginning to end in their traditional sequence. Several scholars who have examined the inscription tend to support this view.
Word of the day there: abecedary. We can honestly say we have never seen that one before.
Fashion update 2,000-year-old periwig unearthed in Sichuan
The Chinese might have learned to adorn themselves with periwigs more than 2,000 years ago, said archeologists who unearthed a skeleton wearing a hairpiece from an ancient tombs in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The wig, found on the lower part of the skull, was made of hemprope, says Zhang Rong, a heritage repairs technician with a local museum in Liangshan prefecture, where the finding was reported.
Zhang said she had consulted several seasoned hemp knitters in the prefecture before she came to the conclusion.
11,000-YEAR-OLD ELK ANTLERS UNEARTHED
ANTLERS from an 11,000-year-old giant deer are being restored after they were unearthed by history students.
The Isle of Man College degree students were on a field trip in Kirk Michael with Dr Peter Davey, director of the Centre for Manx Studies and reader in archaeology at the University of Liverpool, when they found the remains of the Irish Elk in the cliffs.
The exact age of the animal isn't known, but it is thought it lived 11,000 years ago.
Big Clay Statuettes Discovered in Gohar Tepe
The recent archaeological excavations in Gohar Tepe in Mazandaran province have led to the discovery of 3 clay animal statuettes belonging to the Iron Age.
Such a discovery which has been made for the first time faced archaeologists with new questions in regard to the cultural context of the people in the north and northeast of Iran. Archaeologists believe that these statuettes give them the key source to identify the social classes in this historical site.
Mazandaran is one of the most ancient provinces in Iran. Archaeological excavations indicate that the province has been inhabited by human beings since 400,000 years ago until the present time, and that around 5000 years ago, urbanization flourished in the area. Gohar Tepe is a proof to this claim.
Kind of difficult to read, but the figures seem to be about 25-30 cm high and are thought to represent higher social classes because of their size. Or something.