Divers recover Phoenician shipwreck that sank 2.6k years ago off coast of Spain

Origins of Language vs. Writing

• Several comments stress the difference between language (an evolved human capacity) and writing (a recent technology).
• Consensus in the thread: spoken language predates writing by a very long time, likely as long as anatomically modern humans have existed.
• The actual origin of language is labeled “basically unknown”; cave art and storytelling are suggested as early proto-systems but treated as speculative.

Phoenician Alphabet and Its Influence

• Multiple comments explain that Phoenicians did not invent writing, but developed and spread an alphabet derived from older North-Semitic and Egyptian systems.
• The Phoenician script is described as an abjad (consonant-only), reduced from ~27 to 22 letters as certain sounds merged.
• This 22-letter set was too small for many languages; Greeks added vowels to create the first “full” alphabet, and later Latin followed.
• Many modern alphabets, including some in South Asia, are said to trace back to the Phoenician lineage.

Non-literate Societies and Oral Traditions

• Examples given: Aboriginal Australians, various pre-industrial societies, and some European groups whose languages only recently gained written forms.
• Aboriginal cultures are described as rich in oral transmission and symbolic drawing (e.g., sand drawings, rock art) despite lacking a formal script.
• A 1969 cross-cultural study is cited: ~39% no writing, ~37% pictures only, ~24% writing.

Age and Independent Emergence of Writing

• One side emphasizes strong archaeological evidence that writing is recent (proto-writing ~9,000 years, true writing ~5,000) and tied to complex agricultural states.
• Skeptical voices argue that absence of evidence isn’t proof of absence and note the possibility of lost or undiscovered records.
• Discussion covers Mesopotamian token systems, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese and Mesoamerican scripts, and the role of accounting.

Shipwreck Preservation and Material Decay

• Several comments note that preserved wrecks are exceptional; in most waters, wood is quickly destroyed by organisms and physical forces.
• Good preservation occurs in special conditions: deep ocean, low-oxygen seas (Baltic, Black Sea), or burial under sediment/sand.
• This particular wreck was protected by sand and later a metal “coffin”; moving it starts a race against decay, requiring multi-year conservation with specialized treatments.

Related Museums and Comparative Wrecks

• Commenters recommend visiting shipwreck museums: Steamboat Arabia (USA), Vasa (Sweden), Mary Rose (UK), and a Baltic wreck museum (Sweden).
• Some find the conservation techniques—drying and resin impregnation—as interesting as the ships themselves.

Numeric Precision and “2.6k” vs “2600”

• A side thread debates whether “2.6k” vs “2600” conveys precision or approximation and how significant figures should be indicated.
• Multiple conventions are discussed, and it’s noted that, in context, both are clearly approximate for the age of the wreck.