Israeli archaeologists have discovered an historical comb courting again some 3,700 years and bearing what is probably going the oldest recognized full sentence in Canaanite alphabetical script, consultants have stated.

The inscription encourages individuals to comb their hair and beards to rid themselves of lice.

The sentence comprises 17 letters that learn: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

Experts say the invention shines new gentle on a few of humanity’s earliest use of the Canaanite alphabet, invented round 1800 BC and the inspiration of the all successive alphabetic techniques, akin to Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.

The subject signifies that folks had hassle with lice in on a regular basis life throughout the time – and archaeologists say they’ve even discovered microscopic proof of head lice on the comb.

The comb was first excavated in 2016 at Tel Lachish, an archaeological website in southern Israel, however it was solely late final 12 months when a professor at Israel’s Hebrew University observed the tiny phrases inscribed on it. Details of the discover had been printed on Wednesday in an article within the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.

The lead researcher, Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel, informed The Associated Press that whereas many artefacts bearing the Canaanite script have been discovered over time, that is the primary full sentence to be found.

Mr Garfinkel stated earlier findings of only a few letters, perhaps a phrase right here and there, didn’t depart a lot room for additional analysis on the lives on the Canaanites.

“We didn’t have enough material,” he stated.

The discover additionally opens up room for debate in regards to the historical period, Mr Garfinkel added. The incontrovertible fact that the sentence was discovered on an ivory comb within the historical metropolis’s palace and temple district, coupled with the mentioning of the beard, may point out that solely rich males had been in a position to learn and write.

“It is a very human text,” Garfinkel stated. “It shows us that people didn’t really change, and lice didn’t really change.”

Canaanites spoke an historical Semitic language – associated to fashionable Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic – and resided within the lands abutting the japanese Mediterranean. They are believed to have developed the primary recognized alphabetic system of writing.

Finding a whole sentence would additional point out that Canaanites stood out amongst early civilisations of their use of the written phrase. “It shows that even in the most ancient phase there were full sentences,” Mr Garfinkel added.

He stated consultants dated the script to 1700 BC by evaluating it to the archaic Canaanite alphabet beforehand present in Egypt’s Sinai desert, courting again to between 1900 BC and 1700 BC.

But the Tel Lachish comb was present in a a lot later archaeological context, and carbon courting failed to find out its actual age, the article notes.

Austrian archaeologist Felix Hoflmayer, an skilled on the interval who was not a part of the publication, stated this technique of courting was not definitive.

“There are just not enough securely dated early alphabetic inscriptions currently known,” he stated.

Nonetheless, he added the invention was extremely important, and can assist solidify Tel Lachish as a centre of the early alphabet improvement.

“Seventeen letters preserved on a single object is definitely remarkable,” Mr Hoflmayer stated.