Even the ancient world had billboards–or something a lot like them. That’s what a group of archaeologists from Yale University and the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels recently discovered while exploring the archeological remains of the ancient Egyptian city of Elkab. There, they uncovered a series of large hieroglyphics that are an estimated 5,200 years old.
The hieroglyphics are each about a foot and a half tall–they’re “massive” compared to other previously discovered symbols that were typically about an inch tall. “In the modern world this would be akin to seeing smaller text on your computer screen and then suddenly seeing very large ones made the same way only on a billboard,” says John Coleman Darnell, an Egyptologist and professor at Yale who co-directs the Elkab Desert Survey Project, in a Yale News story.
The archaeologists found the symbols by looking for ancient road systems–often, they write, inscriptions are found along thoroughfares and at junctions. That sounds just like a modern-day city, where billboards are often oriented toward areas highly trafficked by walkers or drivers. It’s a fascinating parallel between today’s modern landscape and its ancient precedents. The question remains: Will our society’s billboards last as long?