While not the oldest writing system, it is the oldest currently known alphabet. In older writing systems, signs and symbols weren’t arranged in the logical system we call the alphabet. Also scratched into this ancient script – the Canaanite writing system – is a message on a small comb that was found during excavations in Israel in 2017. It informs us of a disease that both the rich and the poor once battled. : lice.
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The message can be roughly translated as a wish that this comb will help its owner get rid of lice from both hair and beard. “The engraving is profoundly human,” commented the discovery to The Guardian Yosef Garfinkel, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who participated in the excavation. “Today we have aerosols, poisons and modern medicines. In the past, people didn’t have these aids.”
The comb is small – about 2.5 by 3.5 centimeters. Although it was excavated five years ago, the faded carvings have only been studied in more detail since last December. Analysis of the writing indicates that the engraving is a sample of ancient Canaanite writing. This writing is currently the oldest example of alphabetic writing known to us. The earliest writing systems were syllabic or word systems: they also contained hundreds of individual signs and symbols, some of which could represent a word, some even an entire concept, and did not always have a phonetic meaning.
You can learn more about the encryption secrets of ancient languages u200bu200bin the article “What are these squats? How language detectives decipher “dead” writings.“.
The first Canaanite script and alphabet was introduced around 1800 BC in Canaan, the region west of the Jordan River which includes the territories of today’s Israel, parts of Jordan and Lebanon. This alphabet has been used for several centuries. It was standardized by the Phoenicians, whose script later became the basis for our best-known phonetic alphabets: Greek and Latin.
“The fact that this engraving is about such an everyday thing is really fascinating. Throughout history, lice have always caused problems for people. And this record perfectly shows that even the rich and famous were not immune to this disease in ancient times.” , The Guardian” quotes Christopher Rolston, a professor at George Washington University and an expert on ancient Semitic languages.
The fact that this comb belonged to a wealthy person is evidenced by the material from which it is made. If usually such items were made of wood or bone, then in this case we are talking about ivory. Elephants also didn’t live in the territory of Canaan at the time, and this was apparently an imported luxury item, the researchers say.
The entire work is published in the publication “Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology“.
