UGARIT

Ugarit was an ancient port city in northern Syria, founded in c. 6000 BCE Scribes in Ugarit appear to have originated the "Ugaritic alphabet" around 1400 BCE: 30 letters, corresponding to sounds, were inscribed on clay tablets; although they are cuneiform in appearance, they bear no relation to Mesopotamian cuneiform signs. While the letters show little or no formal similarity, the standard letter order (preserved in the Latin alphabet as A, B, C, D, etc.) shows strong similarities between the two, suggesting that the Phoenician and Ugaritic systems were not wholly independent inventions. The existence of the Ugaritic language is attested to in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BCE. Ugaritic is usually classified as a Northwest Semitic language and therefore related to Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician, among others. Its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic and Akkadian. The first musical note in the world was discovered in Ugarit.