When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. An alphabetic inscription written on a jar fragment found at the site of Tel Lachish in Israel ...

Phoenician. Greek. Latin. You might not think you know any of these languages. But in fact, you kind of do. Because the letters of the English language evolved directly out of all of these written ...

The Vault is Slate’s history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. Catherine Falzone, cataloger at ...