The discovery was made at a London development site which had already yielded stunning mosaics and a rare Roman mausoleum.

Fragments of Roman wall plaster found in London are being painstakingly pieced back together. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Among the 120 boxes of fragments is rare evidence of a painter’s signature, as well as unusual graffiti of the ancient Greek alphabet alongside beautiful drawings of birds, fruit and flowers.

Among the 120 boxes of fragments is rare evidence of a painter’s signature, as well as unusual graffiti of the ancient Greek alphabet alongside beautiful drawings of birds, fruit and flowers ...

The plaster also reveals traces left behind by the building’s owners and visitors – in the form of ancient graffiti. This includes an etching of a near complete Greek alphabet – the only known example ...

Tracing the Evolution of an Ancient Script The Greek alphabet is one of the most enduring and influential writing systems in human history. From its origins in the 8th century BCE, it laid the ...

Linear B tablet. Credit: Sharon Mollerus / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons The birth of the Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet was inspired by the Phoenician script, a consonant-only system developed by ...

We know that Herodotus’ claim cannot be correct, since the Phoenician alphabet did not exist as early as 2000 BCE. At that time, the Greeks had not even started using their first script, Linear B.

It was previously believed that the Levantine DNA of the Phoenicians spread as far as their famous alphabet, which influenced quite a few languages. DNA analysis of individuals buried in what used ...