Even Canaanites hated head lice, hidden message on comb reveals.
One of the oldest known sentences ever written was a plea against contracting lice, a new study has found.
Made of ivory, the pocket-sized comb measures less than 1.5 inches long and 1 inch tall. One side contained six teeth, which were likely used for untangling hair, while the other had 14 finer teeth for removing lice and their eggs, the researchers said. All of the comb's teeth have broken off over time, but researchers did find the partial remains of head lice on its second tooth, according to the study.
The hidden plea was written in the language of the Canaanites, which preceded Latin, making it the oldest written language with an alphabet in history, as it was the"first alphabet in the world from which most of the modern alphabets, including the Latin alphabet, descend," study first author Daniel Vainstub , an epigrapher at Ben-Gurion University, told Live Science in an email."For the first time we have a complete sentence in a Canaanite dialect," he added.
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