# Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria · Place

> Early Bronze Age city mound. In Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/places/PLC0DEDPXNDAVET/tell-umm-el-marra-syria  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[Places](https://mysteriesdept.com/places)Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria

Place · tell · in 1 mystery

# Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria

Early Bronze Age city mound

[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)[1 event][36.1080° N, 37.6860° E]

Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria is a tell in the record of Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet, placed to about 1 km.

One event happened here: Four clay cylinders with eight distinct signs are placed in Tomb 4 at Umm el-Marra, Syria; whether they are alphabetic is disputed, -2399.

Tomb 4 of the mortuary complex held the four inscribed cylinders alongside pottery dated by Ebla parallels and radiocarbon to about 2450-2300 BC.

Written from the site's records. [Improve it](https://mysteriesdept.com/developers)

Placed from Wikipedia article coordinates for Umm el-Marra (36.108 N, 37.686 E) · Placed to about 1 km[Open the mystery's map](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic#map)

## In the mysteries

**Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet**

Early Bronze Age city mound · 1 event

[The mystery ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)

## What happened here 1

-2399[Four clay cylinders with eight distinct signs are placed in Tomb 4 at Umm el-Marra, Syria; whether they are alphabetic is disputed](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic/events/EVT0DEDRMDTV17J/four-clay-cylinders-with-eight-distinct-signs-are-placed-in)

## Nearby within 500 km

[Abu Hureyra, Euphrates valley, Syria (now under Lake Assad)](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D51X1QM3G22/abu-hureyra-euphrates-valley-syria-now-under-lake-assad)

archaeological site (flooded)

70 km SE

[Sayburç](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D956Q3E13XT/sayburc)

archaeological site under a village

139 km NE

[Şanlıurfa province](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D956QB845Q2/sanlurfa-province)

province

153 km NE

[Göbekli Tepe](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D956PKT64J4/gobekli-tepe)

archaeological mound

166 km NE

[Gibala-Tell Tweini](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D464FN05ZV4/gibala-tell-tweini)

archaeological site

178 km SW

[Ugarit (Ras Shamra)](https://mysteriesdept.com/records/PLC0D464FD638S7/ugarit-ras-shamra)

city

181 km W

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria [Place PLC0DEDPXNDAVET]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/PLC0DEDPXNDAVET
```

Key

**PLC** 0DEDPXNDAVET

Record

Place

Kind

Tell

Position

36.1080° N, 37.6860° E

Precision

About 1 km

Placed from

Wikipedia article coordinates for Umm el-Marra (36.108 N, 37.686 E)

In

[Proto-Sinaitic and Wadi el-Hol: the first alphabet](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-sinaitic)

Version

1

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

**How this page is made.** The position and its precision are the record's, checked against OpenStreetMap and Wikidata; the map is drawn from Natural Earth. Everything else is the site's own record of what happened here. Six other places on the site lie within 500 km.

The record

Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history.

[JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/PLC0DEDPXNDAVET)