The 3,000-year-old story hidden in the @ sign

On your keyboard it sits quietly, tucked away between the letters and numbers — a curled little character that most of us tap without thinking. The @ sign. In English it’s simply “at.” In Taiwan it’s a “little mouse.” In Dutch, a “monkey’s tail.” In Russia, it’s a “dog.” Italians see a “snail,” and in Hebrew, it’s a “strudel.” A symbol that looks so modern, almost inseparable from the internet age, is in fact one of humanity’s oldest survivors of language and trade. Its roots stretch back thousands of years, beginning not with email, but with wine, reveals Thomas Germain on BBC. The story begins with the amphora, a tall, two-handled clay vessel beloved by the ancient Greeks. Amphoras held...