If you’ve ever wondered what one of the oldest recorded sentences in the world would sound like, well, these archaeologists got you covered. The results may shock you, though.
A group of Israeli archaeologists found the oldest known full sentence written in the Canaanite alphabetical script. The Canaanite alphabet was invented around 1800 B.C., and its creation kick-started the rise of other systems such as Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic.
The statement was inscribed in an ancient comb that was estimated to be dated around 3,700 years ago.
The ancient sentence tells people to comb their hair to get rid of lice. With 17 letters, the statement read: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”
While it isn’t that grand in terms of meaning, it’s actually nice to catch a glimpse of what people prioritize in terms of grooming.
While the ancient statement may not contain grand messages of peace or tranquility, we think that it’s nice that even back then, people still care the most about their hygiene and preventing any issues with their hair.
It also implies that people didn’t really change and that lice issues were very serious, even back then.
Additionally, the comb also tells experts that only the rich were able to read and write during that period. This is because the sentence was found on an ivory comb in the ancient city’s palace and temple district.
The archaeologists consider the comb’s inscription to be the first and oldest sentence in Canaanite to be discovered as it is the only complete sentence they have discovered.
We’d like to note that there are other phrases and words that have been discovered that predated the “ancient lice statement.”
Image credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority via AP
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