Canaanite comb and head lice

[guy]

 

A fine-toothed ivory comb with a Canaanite inscription was found in Northern Israel. It is thought to be the earliest example of a Canaanite sentence. It is believed that Canaanite is the earliest language to use an alphabet.
 

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“Together, the barely discernible markings form seven separate words, "ytš ḥṭ ḏ lqml śʿ[r w]zqt", which roughly translates to "May this tusk root out the lice of the hai[r and the] beard".The hopeful message, thought to have been written around 1700 BCE, is the first reliable sentence archaeologists have found in a Canaanite dialect.”

One side of the comb contains the remnants of six large teeth, probably for brushing hair, while the other side shows remnants of 14 fine teeth, most likely for removing lice and their eggs.

 

I found two aspects of this find interesting. 

First, the ivory to make the comb would have been imported, possibly from elephants from Egypt. This would suggest that the comb was the possession of a wealthy person who could afford such luxury.

Second, the comb had remnants of an ancient head louse. This might suggest that head lice were ubiquitous in the ancient world, including among the wealthiest.

 

 Remains of the head lice between the teeth of the Lachish comb. (Vainstub et al., Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, 2022)

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-ancient-inscription-is-the-oldest-sentence-in-the-worlds-first-alphabetm

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/11/11/comb-first-sentence-canaanite-alphabet/10668203002/

Edited November 11, 2022 by guy

[guy]

Here is follow-up on the linguistic importance of the comb:

 

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What made the Lachish comb a news item upon publication last November of an article about it in the Jerusalem Journal of Archeology was that in 2021, five years after its discovery, an investigator examining it with special optical equipment noticed the presence on it of writing. When deciphered by paleographers, this turned out to be an inscription consisting of seventeen letters (two partly illegible that had to be guessed at) in the alphabet of ancient Canaanite, the language that was the precursor of biblical Hebrew just as the Middle English of Chaucer’s time was that of the English we speak today.

Run together rather than separated into discrete words, these letters represent an extremely early example of Canaanite writing—and since it was apparently the Canaanites, influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphics, who first hit on the idea of representing each of the sounds of their language by a distinct written character, thus leading to the world’s first alphabet, from which most of the alphabets in use today are descended, our little louse comb advances knowledge of the development of one of the most important inventions in human history.

 

https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2023/01/is-the-language-abraham-spoke-engraved-on-an-ancient-lice-comb/

Edited January 4, 2023 by guy

[guy]

Here’s a good video on the find: