Can we read the Indus script?

Unfortunately, no bilingual inscriptions have yet been found to allow the Indus Script to be compared to a known writing system. Since the Indus Script has not been deciphered yet, its use is not known with certainty and all that we think we know is based on archaeological evidence alone.

Why is Indus Script not deciphered?

Discovered from nearly 4,000 ancient inscribed objects, including seals, tablets, ivory rods, pottery shards, etc., the Indus inscriptions are one of the most enigmatic legacies of the Indus Valley civilization which have not been deciphered due to the absence of bilingual texts, extreme brevity of the inscriptions.

What method is evolved to understand the Indus script?

Parpola’s methodology for deciphering the Indus script consists essentially of two parts, namely the rebus principle generally applicable to all ancient logo-syllabic scripts and the linguistic techniques applicable to Dravidian. Word-signs (one sign for each word) first developed from pictures.

Why is Harappan script still undeciphered?

So far, the Indus writing system could not be translated because the texts are too short, we have no bilingual inscription and we do not which language or languages were transcribed. Moreover, it is possible that it worked differently from any other writing system of the same general period.

How do you read ancient writing?

Hieroglyphs are written in rows or columns and can be read from left to right or from right to left. You can distinguish the direction in which the text is to be read because the human or animal figures always face towards the beginning of the line. Also the upper symbols are read before the lower.

What respects in Harappan civilization our greatest heritage?

The Harappan Civilisation presents a basic ground of indispensable heritage which imparts a solid imprint on the latter civilsations, e.g. the way of making baked pottery, bricks, beads, jewelry, etc. The cultivation of cotton was adopted by the Egyptians after several centuries.

Is it true that the Indus Valley script has been deciphered?

Yes it is true the Indus Valley script has been deciphered. I deciphered Indus Valley writing ( IVWS) back in the 1980’s, and we can now read the entire corpus of Indus Valley seals.

What type of writing did the Indus Valley Civilization use?

The Indus (or Harappan) people used a pictographic script. Some 3500 specimens of this script survive in stamp seals carved in stone, in moulded terracotta and faience amulets, in fragments of pottery, and in a few other categories of inscribed objects.

Can Indus inscriptions be compared to modern currency coins?

The paper, titled Interrogating Indus inscription to unravel their mechanism of meaning conveyance, points out that the inscriptions can be compared to the structured messages found on stamps, coupons, tokens and currency coins of modern times.

Do ancient inscriptions in the Indus Valley use Rebus to convey meaning?

According to Ms. Mukhopadhyay, though many ancient scripts use rebus methods to generate new words, the inscriptions found on the Indus seals and tablets have not used rebus as the mechanism to convey meaning.