First Ever Sentence Found in Ancient Alphabet is About Beard Lice

Archaeologists in Israel claim to have discovered the first-known written sentence in Canaanite, an alphabet used by the region's long-gone inhabitants and previously lost to time. The sentence was inscribed on an ivory comb carved from an elephant tusk and consisted of 17 Canaanite characters totaling seven words. "May this tusk search out the lice of the hair and beard," it says. It was discovered near Tel Lachish, a Bronze Age settlement about 25 miles north of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology published details about the script's characters and meaning today. "This is the first Canaanite sentence ever discovered in Israel," an archaeologist says. The markings on the comb, according to Garfinkel's team, are the first whole sentence written in the Canaanite language, the oldest earliest known alphabet.  [caption id="attachment_60607" align="aligncenter" width="965"] Site of Tel Lachish, where the comb was found.
Photo: Emil Aladjem[/caption] Tel Lachish, now an Israel Nature and Parks Authority site, was a bustling city center for almost 600 years, from 1800 BCE to 1150 BCE. The comb was found during excavations in 2017, but the writing style was not discovered until this year. The tool had teeth on both sides, one for untangling hair and another for removing lice. Researchers found traces of head lice on the second tooth under a microscope.