OUGARIT, THE ALPHABET CITY

On the trail of History

An episode from the series THE SECRET OF THE STONES

Synopsis

In 4000 B.C., people in Mesopotamia invented writing. It was a complex script with hundreds of cuneiform symbols, henceforth reserved for the elite.

One thousand five hundred years later, a brand new writing system came to light in the north of Syria: the alphabet. With only about 30 signs, writing was about to become child's play.

The most ancient alphabet was only unearthed in 1928 when the Ugarit site was discovered. It was the capital of a mythical and still unknown kingdom. This major archaeological breakthrough has many secrets to reveal.