“May this protection exterminate the lice from the hair and beard.” This is an engraved (and half-erased) spell found on a comb found in Tel Lachish, Israel, by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Southern Adventist University in the United States. This is the first discovered phrase written in the Canaanite language.
Thick and thin teeth
The object was made of ivory, as evidenced by tests carried out at the university. Ben Gurion. He measures about 3.5 by 2.5 cm and has teeth on both sides. Only the foundations of the larger ones have survived, the rest were broken over time. The side of the comb, which has six thick, spaced teeth, was probably used to detangle hair knots, while the front side, with its 14 finer, closely spaced teeth, was used to remove lice and nits, as were combs against hair. sold today.
The crest was discovered in 2017, but the letters, engraved very superficially, were not seen until 2022, during the cleaning of the site. They are very thin, 1 to 3 mm wide. After opening, the inscription was transcribed by Daniel Weinstub of Ben-Gurion University, who specializes in Semitic epigraphy.
A comb with a base with thick teeth at the top and the smallest teeth at the bottom is used to kill lice and nits. Credits: Daphne Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority.
Proof of use of the alphabet
The inscription consists of 17 letters, forming seven words in the Canaanite language: “this the first phrase ever found in Canaanite in Israel. There are Canaanites in Ugarit, Syria, but they write in a different script than the one still in use today. The inscription on the crest is direct evidence of the use of the alphabet in daily activities around 3,700 years ago. This is an important milestone in the history of human writing,” said Yosef Garfinkel, lead author of the study published in The New York Times. Jerusalem Archaeological Journal.
Transcription of engraved characters. Credits: Daniel Weinstub.
Ancient combs were made of wood, bone or ivory. Ivory was a very expensive material and probably an imported luxury item, since there were no elephants in the Canaan area during this period. He probably came from Egypt, where lice also apparently raged, including among people of high social status. Microscopic and photographic analyzes confirmed its use for the prevention and treatment of this parasitosis: fragments of the chitinous shell of nits were indeed found in the teeth.