Oldest Alphabetic Writing Discovered and the Indian Ocean Gravity Hole
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Welcome to Discover Daily by Perplexity, an AI-generated show on tech, science and culture. I'm Alex. And I'm Sienna. Today we've got two fascinating stories that connect past and present, from ancient writing systems to modern geological mysteries. Let's start with some remarkable news from Syria.

Archaeologists at Johns Hopkins University have uncovered what appears to be the world's oldest known alphabetic writing, dating back to around 2400 BCE. This finding at Tell Um El Mara in western Syria pushes back the timeline of alphabetic writing by about 500 years. The team found finger-length clay cylinders with etched writing in a well-preserved tomb containing six skeletons.

What makes this particularly interesting is that these weren't found in a royal tomb. They were discovered alongside everyday items like cookware, jewelry, and intact pottery vessels. This suggests that writing might have been more widespread than we previously thought.

The discovery fits into a fascinating timeline of writing evolution. While pictographic systems like protocuniform emerged around 6000 BCE in Uruk, and Egyptian hieroglyphs developed around 3200 BCE, this finding represents a crucial middle step in the development of more accessible writing systems.

The Syrian discovery bridges the gap between these complex early systems and later alphabetic scripts. The cylinders have holes in them, indicating they were probably used as labels attached to other objects. While researchers haven't deciphered the actual meaning of the writing yet, they believe these might have been used to mark contents, origin, or ownership of various items.

What's particularly significant about these cylinders is their practical, everyday nature. They appear to be inventory tags or identification markers, suggesting a sophisticated system of record-keeping that extended beyond royal administration. This discovery challenges the long-held belief that alphabets originated in Egypt around 1900 BCE.

The location in Syria suggests an entirely different story about how writing developed. This finding indicates that smaller urban centers played crucial roles in developing new ways to communicate, challenging our understanding of innovation in ancient societies.

Tell Umm el-Mahra's location at the intersection of trade routes suggests that the development of alphabetic writing may have been driven by practical commercial needs rather than royal decree. The evolution of this early writing system likely influenced the development of numerous scripts, including the Aramaic alphabet, which later gave rise to Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac writing systems.

The transition from complex pictographic systems to more accessible alphabetic scripts facilitated wider literacy, enabling advances in trade, governance and cultural exchange among early civilizations. Now, speaking of unexpected discoveries, Sienna, I hear you've got a story about something unusual in the Indian Ocean.

That's right, Alex. Scientists have been studying what they call the Indian Ocean Geoid Low, or I-O-G-L. It's essentially a massive gravitational anomaly centered southwest of Sri Lanka and India, where Earth's gravitational pull is about 0.005% weaker than surrounding areas.

This remarkable region, spanning about 3 million square kilometers, shows a sea level depression that would be up to 106 meters lower than the global mean if other factors weren't compensating for it. Primarily ocean currents, atmospheric pressure differences, and water temperature variations that help maintain global sea level equilibrium.

The story of its formation is fascinating, stretching back 100 to 140 million years ago when the Indian plate began its journey northward from Gondwana. Gondwana was the massive southern supercontinent that included what would become Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and India.

The process involves the ancient Tethys Ocean, which existed between Gondwana and Laurasia. Laurasia was another massive supercontinent in the north, which contained modern-day North America, Europe, and Asia. When the Indian plate moved northward, parts of the ocean floor sank into Earth's mantle. However, this wasn't just about sinking ocean floors. The process created a complex interplay of geological forces. Recent computer simulations have revealed something remarkable.

The formation of the IOGL involved hot, low-density material from what scientists call the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province, or LLSVP, beneath the Indian Ocean. When combined with the sinking Tethys ocean floor, this created a unique pattern of density variations in the mantle. Out of 19 different computer simulations, only six successfully reproduced the formation of this gravity anomaly.

These successful models showed that the IOGL results from a combination of both upper mantle variations and deep mantle processes, with hot, lower-density material present at depths between 300 and 900 kilometers beneath the northern Indian Ocean. This gravity anomaly continues to intrigue scientists as they work to better understand its formation and its role in Earth's complex geological systems.

The IOGL's effects extend beyond pure scientific interest. It influences regional ocean circulation patterns, which in turn affect local climate and weather systems in the Indian Ocean. These circulation changes can impact monsoon patterns across South Asia, potentially affecting agriculture and fishing industries that sustain billions of people.

The anomaly also poses challenges for satellite navigation and marine navigation systems, which must account for these gravitational variations to maintain accuracy. Also, understanding the IOGL helps scientists better predict how Earth's internal processes might influence future geological events, from earthquakes to sea-level changes in the region. Each new study brings us closer to understanding this remarkable feature of our planet's structure:

That's it for today. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite platform. For more info on anything we covered today, check out the links in our episode description. And don't forget, you can now access Perplexity's AI-powered knowledge base on the go with the mobile app, available for both Android and iOS. We also just released the Perplexity desktop app for macOS.

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