Source: UFO Roundup (via UASR)
Date: Dec 28, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor

"Clay tablets uncovered in southern Egypt from the tomb of a king named Scorpion might represent the earliest known writing by humankind, an archaeologist said Tuesday."

"Gunter Dreyer, head of the German Archaeological Institute, said the tablets record linen and oil deliveries made about 5,300 years ago as tithe (taxes) to King Scorpion the First." (Editor's Note: Or about 500 years before Menes united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt and crowned himself Pharoah.)

"He said the tablets have been carbon-dated with certainty to between 3300 and 3200 B.C."

"The Egyptian writings, in the form of line drawings of animals, plants and mountains, are the first evidence that hieroglyphics used by latter-day Pharoanic dynasties did not 'rise as Phoenix from the ashes' but developed gradually, Dreyer said."

"'Linguists now have a larger history (of writing) to regard,' he said."

"The bulk of Dreyer's discovery is from Scorpion's tomb in a cemetery in the Suhag province, 300 miles south of Cairo."

(See USA Today for December 16, 1998, "Ancient writings, a timeless subject." page 3A.)

(Editor's Comment: Among the pictographs found by Dreyer is the "warrior-with-shield" motif. Curiously, this same figure is found on the seals of the Harappan civilization at Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan, on the rongorongo boards of Rapanui (better known as Easter Island), on the rock art of southern Algeria. And now, here it is on the clay tablets of pre-Pharaonic Upper Egypt.. Wonder what it means...)

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