Rare inscription found on ivory comb in Israel reveals ancient annoyance with lice

Israeli archeologists have found an ancient comb dating back some 3,700 years ago and bearing what is likely the oldest known full sentence in Canaanite alphabetical script, according to an article published Wednesday.

The inscription encourages people to comb their hair and beards to rid themselves of lice. The sentence contains 17 letters that read: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."

Experts say the discovery shines new light on some of humanity's earliest use of the Canaanite alphabet, invented around 1800 B.C. and the foundation of all successive alphabetic systems, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.