In 2004, while she was still a meticulous young graduate student, Elaine Sullivan made a discovery that would deepen the history of human writing. Using trowels and brushes to remove ancient soil at an Early Bronze Age burial site in Umm el-Marra, Western Syria — 35 miles from modern-day Aleppo — Sullivan unearthed a pivotal clue: four small clay cylinders inscribed with mysterious symbols. Now a UC Santa Cruz history professor and renowned Egyptologist, Sullivan recalls her excitement that seas...