The Indus script: A challenging puzzle

Writing systems: A case study in cultural evolution

“…These include Proto-Elamite (Englund 1996;Vallat 1986), the Indus script (Parpola 1986(Parpola , 1996, Cretan Hieroglyphic (Bennett 1996;Olivier 1986) and Hittite Hieroglyphs, which were used to write Luwian (Hawkins 1986;Melchert 1996). The last two scripts may be historically connected.…”

Data mining ancient scripts to investigate their relationships and origins

“…The data mining work in this paper is motivated to help decipher ancient scripts such as the still undeciphered Indus Valley Script [24]. The idea is that if an undeciphered script can be matched with an already deciphered script, then the phonetic values of the symbols in the deciphered script can be reasonably expected to match the phonetic values of the corresponding symbols in the undeciphered script.…”

“…First, it is known that intensive trade existed, mainly by sea between the ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and the Indus valley, and the urbanization, irrigation technology, social organization, commercial patterns, and numerous other features of the Indus Valley civilization bears a close resemblance to the Sumerian model [4,9]. Second, the ancient Sumerian records referred to the Indus Valley Civilization as Meluhha, which means "high country" in Dravidian languages according to Parpola [24] and may be related to the present day region of Baluchistan.…”

10. Interaction systems, specialised crafts and culture change: The Indus Valley Tradition and the Indo-Gangetic Tradition in South Asia

“…Although the script has not been deciphered, careful examination of its use provides information on the socio-economic and ritual practices of the Harappan Phase (Lamberg- Karlovsky 1986). Its functions included the identification of ownership of goods or economic transactions, accounting, the recording of socio-political or ritual events and less formal graffiti (Fairservis 1983;Parpóla 1986). The absence of long texts on clay and of bilingual texts cannot be explained by a lack of research.…”

“…It was incised in negative for making positive impressions, incised in positive, moulded, scratched into wet or fired clay, stamped and painted (Fairservis 1983; Parpóla 1986). The most common form of writing is on the intaglio seals, mostly made of carved and fired steatite (Figures 10.a-c).…”