# Marks or a local notation, not an alphabet

> Still possible: The cylinders carry owners' or commodity marks, or a local notation, whose resemblance to alphabetic letters is coincidental.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/answers/ANS0DEDYP432ZQ6/marks-or-a-local-notation-not-an-alphabet  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[Are the Umm el-Marra clay cylinders of about 2400 BC alphabetic writing?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDW8MZFBEA/are-the-umm-el-marra-clay-cylinders-of-about-2400-bc)Answer

Answer · Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet

# Marks or a local notation, not an alphabet

The cylinders carry owners' or commodity marks, or a local notation, whose resemblance to alphabetic letters is coincidental.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, none against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- No further Syrian objects with the same sign inventory will be found.
- The eight shapes will match Early Bronze potters' or owners' marks as well as or better than alphabetic letters.

## What would rule it out

- A longer third-millennium Syrian text in the same signs that reads as a Semitic sequence.

## Evidence 1 for · none against

[Sign-like marks used without being writing are common in the region, and the cylinder sequences correspond to no known…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/evidence/EVD0DEEB20JT663/sign-like-marks-used-without-being-writing-are-common-in-the)

Suggestive

FOR

## The questions it answers

[Are the Umm el-Marra clay cylinders of about 2400 BC alphabetic writing?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/questions/QST0DEDW8MZFBEA/are-the-umm-el-marra-clay-cylinders-of-about-2400-bc)

Open3 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Marks or a local notation, not an alphabet [Answer ANS0DEDYP432ZQ6]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDYP432ZQ6
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDYP432ZQ6

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/sessions/SES0DEEC4SCCB1B/session-1-proto-sinaitic-and-wadi-el-hol-seeded-corpus) · 31 Oct 2026

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