Setence Written in Canaanite Language Found on Ivory Comb
ARCHAEOLOGISTS IDENTIFIED AN ENTIRE SENTENCE IN CANAANITE ENGRAVED ON AN IVORY COMB THAT DATES FROM 1700 BC.
The comb was uncovered at Tel Lachish in Israel back in 2017 by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) and Southern Adventist University in the United States.
At the time, the shallow nature of the engravings implied that any identification went undetected until succeeding post-processing in 2022. Showing text that has now been decoded by Semitic epigraphist Dr. Daniel Vainstub at Ben Gurion University (BGU).
The comb measures approximately 3.5 by 2.5 cm and has six thick teeth on the side. It that was utilized to unravel knots in the hair. The opposite side, with 14 fine teeth, was used to take out lice and their eggs, similar to the current-day two-sided lice combs.
On the comb are 17 Canaanite letters in an archaic form from the first stage of the creation of the alphabet script. They make seven words in Canaanite, reading: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”
According to Professor Yosef Garfinkel, this is the first sentence identified in Israel’s Canaanite language. There are Canaanites in Ugarit in Syria, however, they write in a different script, not the alphabet that is employed today. The Canaanite cities are mentioned in Egyptian records, the Amarna letters written in Akkadian, and the Hebrew Bible.
Filling in the blanks
The comb inscription is direct evidence of using the alphabet in daily activities some 3700 years earlier. This is a milestone in the history of the human capability to write.
Ancient combs were commonly made from wood, bone, or ivory. Ivory was a costly material and probably an imported deluxe object. Since there were no elephants in Canaan during that period, the comb likely originated from nearby Egypt, suggesting that even people of high social status experienced lice.
The research study group analyzed the comb itself for the existence of lice under a microscope, and researchers took photographs of both sides. Remains of head lice, 0.5– 0.6 mm in size, were found on the 2nd tooth.
Regardless of its small size, the engraving on the comb fills in gaps and lacunas in our expertise of lots of aspects of the culture of Canaan in the Bronze Age. For the very first time, scientists have a whole verbal sentence written in the dialect spoken by the Canaanite inhabitants of Tel Lachish.
Read the original article on Heritage Daily.
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