Israeli archeologists find ancient comb with 'full sentence'
Israeli archeologists say they have found an ancient comb dating back to Canaanite times and bearing what is likely the oldest known full sentence in an alphabetical script
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archeologists have found an ancient comb dating back some 3,700 years ago and bearing what is likely the oldest known full sentence in Canaanite alphabetical script, according to an article published Wednesday.
The inscription encourages people to comb their hair and beards to rid themselves of lice. The sentence contains 17 letters that read: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."
Experts say the discovery shines new light on some of humanity’s earliest use of the Canaanite alphabet, invented around 1800 B.C. and the foundation of the all successive alphabetic systems, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.
The mundane topic indicates that people had trouble with lice in everyday life during the time — and archaeologists say they have even found microscopic evidence of head lice on the comb.
