Just as long-buried artifacts can provide clues about the history of their former owners, so languages, and the symbols with which they are written, can help to throw light onto ancient matters. It is noted that there is no trace of an evolutionary origin for the alphabet, any more than there is for language. As is well known, many ancient peoples used their alphabet also as a system of numerals. Moreover, there seem to be connections between the alphabet and the calendar, which suggests that the forms and arrangement of the letters owe something to astronomy.