Researchers have discovered the oldest known sentence written in the first alphabet. It’s all about lice

The sentence, believed to be the oldest known sentence in the world and written in the oldest alphabet, reads: “Let this tusk pluck the lice from the hair and beard.”

The ancient find came from Lachish, a Canaanite city-state in the second millennium BC, and shows that people have endured lice for thousands of years, and even the wealthiest have not been spared their pesky infestations.

“The inscription is very human,” said Joseph Garfinkel, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist who helped excavate Lachish.

The dimensions of the comb are 3.5 x 2.5 cm. It was discovered at a site in south-central Israel in 2017, but the shallow carvings on the surface of the comb were only noticed last December. The analysis of the signs confirmed that it is a text of the oldest alphabet, the Canaanite, invented about 3,800 years ago.

Researchers believe the inscription was engraved on the comb around 1700 BC. The comb is worn and lost its prongs, but it is thought it once had six sparse prongs on one side for untangling strands of hair and 14 narrow prongs on the side. ‘other to comb the lice and their eggs, or nits.