![]() ![]() It is possible the script can be at least partly deciphered. (Photo by Matija Podhraški/ Wikimedia Commons ) Trade is known to have happened between Indus and Mesopotamia, so it’s possible a dual-script seal will be found, making decipherment easier. Researchers into the Indus script hope someday to find a thunderbolt similar to the Rosetta Stone, which had both previously undeciphered hieroglyphics and their translation into ancient Greek, which helped a great deal in unraveling the ancient Egyptian script. The brevity of the Indus writings, if they are that, may mean they express only small bits of the language of the Indus Valley civilization, Robinson writes, similar to early types of Mesopotamia’s cuneiform that recorded only officials’ names and calculations of products, including grain. Other scripts that have yet to be deciphered include Linear A of ancient Greece, Etruscan from Italy, the signs on the Phaistos Disc from Crete and the Rongorongo script from Easter Island. In 2004, a team of researchers compared the Indus script to a system of non-phonetic symbols like the Neolithic Vinča culture of southeast and central Europe and the heraldry of medieval Europe. The carvings have an average of only five characters per set. Many scholars have proposed plausible Dravidian meanings for a few groups of characters based on Old Tamil, although none of these 'translations' has gained universal acceptance.” In an article on, Andrew Robinson, an author on lost languages, writes: “As for the language, the balance of evidence favours a proto-Dravidian language, not Sanskrit. Researchers are unsure which language was being written down in the Indus script, or even if it would be possible for such brief inscriptions to represent a complete language system.Īn example of Indus Valley script with swastikas (World Imaging photo/ Wikimedia Commons ) Linguists do not know how many characters or syllables it has (estimates ranging from dozens to 958), they are not sure whether it is an alphabet (probably not), a syllabary (again, probably not) or a logographic-syllabic script that has words, concepts such as & and % and a small number of syllables (probably). The undeciphered Indus script is carved in part with human and animal depictions and pictographic signs on soapstone seals, terracotta tablets and some on metal. As well as its unknown script, the knowledge of social structures and life during that period is scant. It is one of the three oldest urban civilizations, along with Egypt and Mesopotamia, but it is the least understood. The Indus Valley civilization was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BC) that extended from what is today northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Linguists have cracked many tough scripts, from Mesopotamian cuneiform to Egyptian hieroglyphic to Central American Mayan glyphs, but there are a few ancient, mysterious scripts still in the field today, including the Indus Valley Civilization script of over four millennia ago, that are yet to be deciphered. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |