A Canaanite inscription on a lice comb from Lachish

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: Israeli Archaeologists Find First Whole Sentence Written in Canaanite. On a Lice Comb. The earliest sentence found in Israel petitions the gods, but not to rain down good fortune or extirpate the foe (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Found in 2017 in the biblical city of Lachish, the artifact joins the pantheon of ancient combs assumed to be for lice that have been found up and down the Holy Land. But this one is different.

This one bears the earliest sentence ever found in Israel, seven words in the world’s first alphabet, archaic proto-Canaanite: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

The object was found in a scientific excavation. And epigrapher Christopher Rollston says the inscription is real. It looks like this is the real deal.

This is an important discovery. Also, Eww.

UPDATE: Amanda Borschel-Dan has a characteristically thorough article on the comb and inscription: Ivory lice comb – a dating head-scratcher – may hold earliest Canaanite sentence. With a paucity of contemporary Bronze Age examples for comparison, scholars believe relatable 7-word inscription is first recorded complete proto-Canaanite sentence in Holy Land (Times of Israel).

Among the extras in the article is the story of how "the world has a camera thief to thank for this discovery" (of the inscription).

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