[HN Gopher] Archaeologists Find First Whole Sentence Written in ...
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Archaeologists Find First Whole Sentence Written in Canaanite. On a
Lice Comb
Author : Amorymeltzer
Score : 49 points
Date : 2022-11-09 18:30 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.haaretz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.haaretz.com)
| treis wrote:
| "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."
|
| ^ Save a click
| mc32 wrote:
| Having not read the article I then guess this was an instrument
| for the wealthy who could read? Or, would poor buy something
| they cannot read? Maybe if it was a common saying and then they
| have the meaning memorized.
| inkcapmushroom wrote:
| Reads like it might be instructions to me.
| commandlinefan wrote:
| > I then guess this was an instrument for the wealthy
|
| You guessed correctly, per the article: "It would have been
| like a diamond today, a creme de la creme luxury item. Others
| likely had lice combs too, but made of wood that would have
| decayed"
| treis wrote:
| It was a lice comb so probably some sort of
| prayer/spell/whatever for it to work better. This particular
| one was ivory so it was for someone wealthy who possibly
| could have been able to read it. Poorer people would have
| used wooden combs.
| dmonitor wrote:
| > probably some sort of prayer/spell/whatever for it to
| work better
|
| Or its like a shampoo bottle and it's written there because
| the carver felt like it.
| groffee wrote:
| Exactly. Imagine 2,000 years from now "archaeologists"
| thinking "rinse, repeat as required" is some kind of
| ritual incantation on a shampoo bottle.
| pessimizer wrote:
| I would think that the carver would have done a neater
| job.
| pessimizer wrote:
| I imagine that a magician etching your comb with magic
| words (i.e. all written words 4K years ago) was like going
| for the extended warranty.
| commandlinefan wrote:
| > Save a click
|
| Well, there was more to the article than that. I was actually
| surprised that the Canaanite language wasn't more well
| documented.
| rthomas6 wrote:
| Tangentially related recommendation of the video game Heaven's
| Vault. The main mechanic is the character learning the history of
| the mysterious fantasy setting through deciphering ancient
| writing that nobody can read anymore, including the character,
| from artifacts like ancient combs. You make guesses on words
| based on context and similarity to other words you've learned,
| and you can guess wrong. It has a cool nonlinear branching
| narrative and is worth playing.
| pencilguin wrote:
| Guessing that of the words translated, "tusk" is the least likely
| to be correct. Betting "ivory" is closer.
| geocrasher wrote:
| Interesting fact I learned recently. Canaanite = Phoenician. The
| people- not the language.
| epenn wrote:
| Minor nitpick, but I would say Phoenician is to Canaanite as
| Byzantine is to Roman. It gives a name to the local continuity
| and further development of the Canaanite culture in the
| northwestern coastal region of Canaan, i.e. Phoenicia, at a
| time when Canaanite culture to the south developed related but
| distinct branches of its own.
| unfocused wrote:
| Not a scholar, but Lebanese background and the words on that comb
| are what we still use today:
|
| "The first word is the root natash which serves like in Hebrew -
| to root out," he explains. The Canaanite word for hair is se'ar,
| the same as in all semitic languages"
|
| We would use natash, or to "t'natsh" as the word to root/pull out
| And Shaer, is hair
|
| So looks like like someone wrote the instruction manual on the
| product. Best place to be honest :)
| jonny_eh wrote:
| I feel like a lot of modern products could benefit from that
| ancient lesson.
| klyrs wrote:
| To me, it evokes Dr Bronner's soap...
| Arrath wrote:
| Not nearly enough text on the comb for that.
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(page generated 2022-11-09 23:02 UTC)