By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Archaeologists have finally traced a lost alphabet that puzzled scholars for decades back to a 3,000 year-old civilization of Biblical significance. Since 1964, archaeologists have found 15 different tablets with strange carvings at the site of an ancient settlement in Jordan.
Thanks to new analysis, archaeologists have found that they were likely made by the Canaanites, an indigenous group who thrived in the Middle East until the second half of the 13th century BC. The Canaanites resided in ‘the Promised Land’ from 3500BC until 1200BC before they were conquered by Israeli tribes following their Exodus from Egypt.
The Canaanites are mentioned several times in the old testament, including the books of Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Joshua. In the book of Joshua 3:10, God tells the Israelites that he will drive out the Canaanites before they arrive in the promised land.
The Israelites fought a series of wars against the Canaanites and ultimately took over most of their land – this conquest took place in the second half of the 13th century BC.
But before that, during the Bronze Age, the Canaanites lived all throughout the Southern Levant, or modern-day Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Syria.
And the mysterious clay tablets date back to that time.
The study, published in American Society of Overseas Research, found that the script was written from left to right, and featured 29 unique symbols of dots, vertical bars and other abstract designs.
Researchers suggested that the inscriptions are short cultic proverbs related to the religious temple they were found in, which was burned and destroyed thousands of years ago.