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The oldest deciphered written phrase is found on a Bronze Age lice comb in the Kingdom of Judah. The message expressed in the oldest known alphabet concerns an everyday problem that modern humans still face today, just like the Canaanites around 3,700 years ago: lice.
Youri Vlemings
Last update:
09-11-22, 14:14
Source:
The Guardian
“May this defense eliminate lice in the hair and beard.” These words adorn a double-edged ivory comb that was apparently used in the Bronze Age in the Kingdom of Judah to remove lice from the wealthiest citizens. The comb measures 3.5 by 2.5 centimeters. It is probably an imported luxury product, since there were no elephants in Canaan, and therefore no ivory.
The artifact was discovered in 2017 in Lachish, about 40 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. During the second millennium BC, the city of Canaan was the second largest in the Kingdom of Judah, after the capital Jerusalem. It wasn’t until December last year that the shallow carvings on the ridge were noticed. Analysis revealed that it was the Proto-Canaanite script, the first alphabet invented around 3,800 years ago.
The first writing systems appeared in Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3200 BC. AD, but they were not alphabetic. The first alphabet was invented around 1800 BC. AD by Semitic-speaking people familiar with Egyptian writing. This Proto-Sinaitic or Proto-Canaanite script was used for hundreds of years and became the basis of Ancient Greek, Latin, and most modern languages of Europe.
“The inscription is very human,” said archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and supervisor of the Lachish excavations. “It’s a comb and on the comb is the desire to destroy the lice in the hair and in the beard. Today we have all these sprays, modern medicines and poisons. They didn’t have them before. “
The usual radiocarbon dating process was unable to determine the age of the comb, but researchers believe it was made around 1700 BC. The comb is worn and has lost its teeth, but the remaining stumps show that it once had six widely spaced teeth to remove matted hair on one side, and fourteen teeth close together to remove lice and nits on the other side .
Microscopic examination showed that lice were the target of the comb. Scientists were able to identify the tough outer membranes of the nymphal stages of half a millimeter long head lice.
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