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 ...

THE English language has had a long and storied history, and it's gone through many changes throughout the years. You only have to flip through a few pages of any William Shakespeare's play to see how ...

Centuries before Moses wandered in the “great and terrible wilderness” of the Sinai Peninsula, this triangle of desert wedged between Africa and Asia attracted speculators, drawn by rich mineral ...

A book uses lavish illustrations and typography to tell how cultures transformed sounds into letters, why letters look the way they do, and why they'll never change While the tome is full of beautiful ...

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 ...