The lowly louse has been harassing humankind for millennia. In the past few years we have been trying to locate the little critter archaeologically. Not only has our search for the louse itself been successful, but we have in the process even discovered an effective ancient delousing procedure. Ancient literature is full of references to this little plague. Indeed, the most famous reference to lice in antiquity is quite literally as a plague—the third plague visited on the Egyptians when pharaoh denied Moses’ request to let the Israelites go: “[Pharaoh] became stubborn and would not heed them, as the […]
