<div align="justify">Archaeologists have discovered what may be the world's oldest emoji - a smiley face painted on an 3,700-year-old piece of pottery.<br /><br />During an excavation at an ancient city whose remains are in modern-day Turkey near the Syrian border, archaeologists found the ancient pitcher with three visible paint strokes on it - two dots for eyes and a curve for a smile.<br /><br />The pitcher, which dates to about 1700 BC, was found in a burial site beneath a house in Karkemish, said Nikolo Marchetti, associate professor at the University of Bologna in Italy.<div align="justify"><br />The pitcher was likely used to drink sherbet, a sweet beverage, Marchetti was quoted as saying by 'Live Science'.<br /><br />The archaeologists also found other vases and pots, as well as metal goods in the ancient city.</div><div align="justify"><br />The name Karkemish translates to "Quay of (the god) Kamis," a deity popular at that time in northern Syria.</div><div align="justify"><br />The city was inhabited from the sixth millennium BC, until the late Middle Ages when it was abandoned, and populated by a string of different cultures, including the Hittites, Neo Assyrians and Romans, researchers said.<br /><br />It was used once more in 1920 as a Turkish military outpost, they said. <br /></div></div>
<div align="justify">Archaeologists have discovered what may be the world's oldest emoji - a smiley face painted on an 3,700-year-old piece of pottery.<br /><br />During an excavation at an ancient city whose remains are in modern-day Turkey near the Syrian border, archaeologists found the ancient pitcher with three visible paint strokes on it - two dots for eyes and a curve for a smile.<br /><br />The pitcher, which dates to about 1700 BC, was found in a burial site beneath a house in Karkemish, said Nikolo Marchetti, associate professor at the University of Bologna in Italy.<div align="justify"><br />The pitcher was likely used to drink sherbet, a sweet beverage, Marchetti was quoted as saying by 'Live Science'.<br /><br />The archaeologists also found other vases and pots, as well as metal goods in the ancient city.</div><div align="justify"><br />The name Karkemish translates to "Quay of (the god) Kamis," a deity popular at that time in northern Syria.</div><div align="justify"><br />The city was inhabited from the sixth millennium BC, until the late Middle Ages when it was abandoned, and populated by a string of different cultures, including the Hittites, Neo Assyrians and Romans, researchers said.<br /><br />It was used once more in 1920 as a Turkish military outpost, they said. <br /></div></div>