First Sentence Ever Found in Ancient Alphabet, and It's About Beard Lice

Gizomodo ^ | Isaac Schultz

[BenLurkin]

Archaeologists in Israel say they have found the first-known written sentence in Canaanite, an alphabet used by the long-ago inhabitants of the region and until now lost to time.

The sentence—comprising 17 Canaanite characters, totaling seven words—was incised on an ivory comb carved from an elephant tusk. It says: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

Photo: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority

[stylecouncilor]

Ping

[Boogieman]

“the first-known written sentence in Canaanite...”

Isn’t this the same as the Hebrew alphabet, or proto-Hebraic? Sure looks like it.

Just because you write a different language with an alphabet doesn’t make it a new alphabet.

[Lazamataz]

“May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

Gross.

[nicollo]

I grew up with a children’s book on Alexander the Great, and the only thing from it has stuck with me was that Alex told his troops to shave so that their enemies couldn’t grab them by the beard and slice their heads off. Had an awesome accompanying graphic, too!

[Redcitizen]

..Take me downtown, I'm just looking for some tusk...

[Varda]

I pointed out to a professor once that these combs were more about parasites than grooming. He had never thought about that. We live in a society where personal parasites are rarely a problem. The style of these combs still exists: