An Ancient People's Oldest Message: Get Rid of Beard Lice. - The New York Times

The tiny ivory comb came from past ruins successful cardinal Israel and was astir the size of a child’s thumb. A fig of its teeth had snapped. It was truthful encrusted successful ungraded that the archaeologist who recovered it initially added it to a container of assorted bones.

More than fractional a decennary later, by a changeable of luck, scientists recovered letters faintly inscribed connected the object: “May this tusk basal retired the lice of the hairsbreadth and the beard.”

“People benignant of laughter erstwhile you archer them what the inscription really says,” said Michael Hasel, an archaeologist astatine Southern Adventist University successful Tennessee who was progressive successful the find of the comb.

But those words turned retired to beryllium thing but banal. Dr. Hasel and his colleagues dated the comb to astir 1,700 B.C., which means that this entreaty against lice is 1 of the oldest examples of the penning of Canaanites, an past Near Eastern radical credited with processing the earliest forms of the alphabet that would germinate into the letters utilized successful this paper today. As the scientists explicate successful an article published Wednesday successful the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, the 17 letters connected the comb signifier the oldest full, decipherable condemnation ever recovered successful an aboriginal alphabetic script.

“I truly deliberation this is the astir important entity ever recovered successful my excavations,” said Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist astatine Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a co-author of the survey who has unearthed evidence of King David’s reign during his career.

He paused, past added, with a hint of emotion successful his voice: “This is the archetypal condemnation ever recovered successful the alphabet.”

The earliest confirmed systems of quality penning emerged astir 3,200 B.C., with cuneiform successful Mesopotamia and hieroglyphics successful Egypt. These scripts had hundreds of letters and were mostly pictorial. That made them precise hard to learn, but they dispersed astir the Near East. At immoderate point, astir apt adjacent to 1,800 B.C., a caller benignant of penning appeared successful the portion that relied connected lone a fewer twelve letters that were repeated and shuffled around. Each missive related to a azygous basal sound, oregon phoneme.

The improvement of this aboriginal alphabet is not good understood. But Christopher Rollston, who studies the languages and penning systems of the Near East astatine George Washington University, said determination was statement that “the alphabet was invented by Semitic-speaking radical who were acquainted with the Egyptian penning system.”

The alphabet continued to evolve, from Phoenician to Old Hebrew to Old Aramaic to Ancient Greek to Latin, becoming the ground for today’s modern English characters. Dr. Garfinkel said that the DNA of the earliest alphabet could inactive beryllium recovered successful English and Hebrew. For instance, the missive “A” looks a spot similar a cattle staring astatine you — 2 legs supporting a head. It corresponds to the Hebrew missive Aleph, which corresponds to the Semitic connection for ox. “You tin inactive spot that successful the ‘A,’” Dr. Garfinkel said.

Part of the alphabet’s relation came from its simplicity. Matching 1 missive to 1 dependable made penning and speechmaking acold easier to learn. Dr. Hasel compared it with the printing property and the net — full caller communities were capable to entree accusation and grounds history. “The invention of the alphabet was the astir important publication to connection successful the past 4 millennia,” helium said.

But the find of the letters connected the tiny ivory comb did not commencement with anyone seeking clues to however this alphabet emerged. The artifact had been successful retention since 2016, erstwhile it was collected from the ruins of the past metropolis of Tel Lachish. Archaeologists digging astatine the tract tin inventory thousands of items a week.

Earlier this year, Madeleine Mumcuoglu, a parasitologist and archaeologist astatine the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, enactment the comb nether a microscope to look for remnants of caput lice. “I concentrated connected the teeth, and not connected thing else,” she said. “I had beauteous pictures nether the microscope.”

But she besides took pictures of the full comb with her phone, and erstwhile she zoomed in, she saw an engraving.

Dr. Mumcuoglu sent 2 of these pictures to Daniel Vainstub, a paleographer astatine Ben-Gurion University of the Negev successful Israel. He was capable to discern Canaanite letters. Dr. Hasel and Dr. Garfinkel past sent the existent comb to Dr. Vainstub for a much thorough analysis. All of the researchers were stunned that the penning had gone unnoticed for much than 5 years

“Everybody had this comb successful their hand, and nary 1 saw the inscription,” Dr. Mumcuoglu said.

Over the adjacent fewer months, Dr. Vainstub compared the 17 letters successful the inscription, each little than a tenth of an inch long, to different past writings. Because examples of Canaanite penning astir the aforesaid clip play are uncommon and fragmentary, and due to the fact that galore of the engravings connected the comb were faint, the enactment was painstaking. But the penning of the inscription connected an ivory comb seemed to constituent to a azygous translation. Dr. Vainstub said that, aft helium made retired the connection “lice,” helium knew helium had figured it out.

“This is superb and judicious and cautious scholarship,” said Dr. Rollston, who was not progressive successful the study.

While the find and deciphering of the inscription amounts to a important archaeological beforehand successful the survey of the alphabet, nary of the researchers assertion that this uncovering blows unfastened the doors to the field. In fact, determination are galore caller questions to ask: There were nary elephants successful Canaan, truthful wherever was the ivory comb inscribed? Who inscribed it? What intent did the inscription serve?

Dr. Garfinkel said that uncovering the comb with a plea against lice was similar “finding a sheet that says, ‘Put nutrient connected this plate.’” It’s simple, functional and reflective, successful immoderate ways, of our nature.

“It’s thing precise human,” helium said. “What were you expecting? A emotion song? A look to marque pizza?”