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card_zero

So 3000 years is a guess at the age of the word "amphora", but @ is from the year 1536.

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Yes, the headline is a little dishonest. It's a 486 year-old story not 3,000 years.

Welcome to the Internet.

Context is important when telling a story. I say the title is fair.

3000 years ago is about when the first recognizable letter A was drawn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Canaanite_alphabet

The amphora vessel design is neolithic, so you could add on another 10,000 years if you want to trace the roots of the @ symbol tenuously into pottery. There's such a thing as too much context.

But what if we add the role that harnessing fire had on the development of pottery and the amphora? That easily adds another 770000 years

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