The Archaeology and Epigraphy of Indus Writing.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (161 pages)
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Figure 1.1 Map of some major archaeological sites discussed in the text. -- The Indus Valley Script -- Figure 1.2 Chronological table showing approximate temporal relationships between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. -- Figure 1.3 Various types of intaglio seals: a) Square, b) Rectangular, c) Circular, d) Cylinder. -- Figure 1.4 Examples of seal impressions use as closures. a) K-89, Multiple seal impressions -- b) M-0426, multiple impressions with impression of writing on reverse -- c) H-1721, single impression -- d) H-1725, single impression on jar stopper. -- Figure 1.5 Text on the back of DK12145/M-0426. -- Figure 1.6 Possible pen nib M-2129. -- Figure 1.7 Bas relief (H-1827) and Incised (H-2127) miniature tablets from Harappa, and (M-0534) a Copper tablet from Mohenjo-daro -- Figure 1.8 Inscribed post -firing text (H-2336) -- Pre-firing seal impressions on ceramic vessel (Pointed-bottom Goblets, H-1082) -- Figure 1.9 Miscellaneous inscribed artifacts from various sites and periods. -- Chapter 2 -- Figure 2.1 Flowchart of the method used to define indus graphemes. -- The Indus Sign List -- Figure 2.2 Methods of sign elaboration and construction. -- Figure 2.3 The five largest allographic sets of Indus signs. -- Figure 2.4 Graphemic vs. allographic variations of signs 155, 156 and 158. -- Figure 2.5 Overlapping contexts of signs 155, 156 and 158 with pair frequency given between sign graphs. -- Figure 2.6 An Indus Sign List -- Chapter 3 -- Figure 3.1 Continuum of text clasification of Indus texts by sign distribution and clustering. -- Indus Texts -- Patterns of Sign Use and the Syntactic Structure of. Figure 3.2 Deviation of text types from expected random frequency of occurrences -- Figure 3.3 Elements of the Patterned text M-0393. -- Figure 3.4 Text M-0647 showing "conjunctive" sign 741 and frequency of pairing. -- Figure 3.5 Graphemes based on sign 740 with infixed numbers. -- Figure 3.6 Examples of signs 920/320 in Initial and Terminal clusters -- Figure 3.7 Percentage of ICTM by their positions in txts from right (1) to left (10) -- Figure 3.8 ICTM by one sign initial clusters. -- Figure 3.9 Distribution of sign 1, 2, and 60 in long (6+ signs) Patterned texts -- Figure 3.10 Structural analysis of IC from text M-0355 -- Figure 3.11 Segmentation "tree" of text M-0355 -- Figure 3.12 Graph showing the solo and IC percentage for 11 common signs found in ICs -- Figure 3.13 Distribution of sign 550 in long Patterned texts -- Figure 3.14 Distribution of sign 817 in long Patterned texts -- FIGURE 3.15 PERCENTAGE OF SET 1 AND 2 ICS PAIRING WITH ICTMS IN LONG PATTERNED TEXTS -- Figure 3.16 The most common ICTM-Constant combinations in ICs. -- Figure 3.17 ICs with sign 220 right-adjacent to ICTMs that employ Semi-variable. -- Figure 3.18 Contexts of sign 368 right adjacent to ICTMs with ∅ case identified from Initial cluster contexts in the last example. -- Figure 3.19 Long ICs with 002 as ICTM. Frequency of collocation given between signs. -- Figure 3.20 Fish signs used in Indus writing. -- Figure 3.21 Sign 220 plus number clusters in medial contexts -- Figure 3.22 The five most common fish sign in the normal order in fish sign clusters (right to left). -- Figure 3.23 Pairing of fish signs in long Patterned texts -- Figure 3.24 Collocations of fish signs with signs 798 and 803 -- Figure 3.25 Affixing patters for signs 100-415 Bonded Cluster (BC). -- Figure 3.26 Affixing paradigms for sign 590+ phytomorphic signs as Bonded Clusters. Figure 3.27 Affixing paradigms for the 033/705 Bonded Cluster. Numbers indicate the frequency of sign pairing. -- Figure 3.28 Contexts of Set 17 signs initial and terminal contexts pairing with sign 350 including a two-line text (bottom). -- Figure 3.29 Well known terminal cluster in strings which could be mistaken for Post Terminals: (a) H-158 (b) H-058 (c) M-1320. All three are Multiple Segment texts. -- Figure 3.30 DK.E, E2475 showing the list of three BCs. -- Figure 3.31 Sign 740 solo example from Diamabad (Dmd-1). -- Figure 3.32 Comparison of a Patterned (top) and Complex (bottom) text in terms of sign correlations -- Figure 3.33 Comparison of Pure texts (H98-3491, top) and Hybrid Complex (Nd-1, bottom). -- Figure 3.34 Segmentation trees for H98-3491 and Nd-1. -- Figure 3.35 All of the complete texts using the 920-140 pair. -- Figure 3.36 The Dholavira signboard (photo reversed to maintain reading order). -- Figure 3.37 Text with related structures to the Dholavira signboard. -- Figure 3.38 H-006 with the partially rotated sign 625/850. -- Figure 3.39 The longest Indus text on a single surface (M-0314). -- Chapter 4 -- Tablets, Pots and the Volumetric System of Harappa -- Figure 4.1. Possible depiction of a Viiii tree offering on M-0478. -- Figure 4.2. Examples of artifacts bearing V+# texts. Miniature tablets (bas relief: TAB:B -- incised: TAB:I) and ceramic vessels.(POT:T:g). Drawings courtesy of Richard Meadow and the HARP project. -- Figure 4.3. Tabulation of tablets with V+# texts found at Harappa, Pakistan by tablet type and number of long strokes (Incised tablets = I, and Bas relief tablets = B). -- Figure 4.4. Miniature tablets with V+# texts by mound at Harappa. -- Figure 4.5 Purana Qila pots in situ after Vats (1940: Vol. II, Plate 23a). -- Figure 4.6. The Purana Qila pots from Harappa with V+# texts and an example from Kalibangan. Table 4.1. Measurements of the Purana Qila vessels with radius and volume calculations showing VI ≈ 40.4 liters. -- Table 4.2. Summary of the estimated units of the Harappa volumetric system. Errors are given in litersin liters. Errors never exceeds 2% of the vessels volume. -- Figure 4.7 All non-Harappan examples of V+# texts. -- Chapter 5 -- Figure 5.1. Basic Indus Script Stroke Numerals -- Numerals in the Indus Script and their Uses -- Figure 5.2. Economic texts from three ancient writing systems compared to the Indus script demonstrating a common noun + number structure. -- Table 5.1. Right-adjacent collocations of Short-Linear Stroke signs (shaded cells have a frequency > -- 4). -- Table 5.2. Right-adjacent collocations of short stacked stroke signs (shaded cells have a frequency > -- 4). -- Figure 5.3. Contexts of signs 031 and 032 with numeric syllabic examples -- Figure 5.4. Inscribed ceramics with matching inscriptions to tablets (from Harappa). -- Table 5.3. Right adjacent collocations of long linear stroke signs (shaded cells have a frequency of five or more). -- Figure 5.5. Associations of "fish" signs and numeral signs. -- Figure 5.6. Numeral signs associated with sign 740. Numbers between sign graphs indicate the frequency of sign pairings. -- Figure 5.7 Examples of sign 900 as a numeral in positional notation -- Figure 5.8. Various Contexts of Sign 055 -- Chapter 6 -- Proto-Dravidian and the Indus Script -- Table 6.1 The proto-Dravidian number system. -- Figure 6.1 Copper tablet artifacts from Mohenjo-daro with the 'hare eating grass' replacement set. -- Figure 6.2. Some examples of sign 820 in various contexts. -- Figure 6.3 Contexts of 740 and 820 using the same bonded cluster. -- Figure 6.4 Positional analysis of sign 820 in Patterned, Long Complex and Short Segment texts texts. Figure 6.5. Some examples of 740 and 752 pairing in texts. -- Figure 6.6. Possible reading of M-30. -- Figure 6.7. Bas-relief miniature tablet H-182 with drummer and tiger. -- Figure 6.8. The Dholavira signboard with photo reversed to reflect reading order. -- Figure 6.9. Segmentation tree for the Dholavira Signboard -- Figure 6.10. Other text containing the Dholavira toponym (also see Figure 3.37). -- Figure 6.11. Suggested readings for Dholavira signboard signs. -- Figure 6.12. H-176 with the sign sequence 861+740 reading 'cow at the city'. -- Figure 6.13. Examples of the various contexts of sign 821. -- Figure 6.14. The distribution of sign 798 in all complete text in which it occurs. -- Figure 6.15. The Mohenjo-daro bangle pot with seal impression and reconstructed bangels for fragments found in the vessel. -- Figure 6.16. The Mohenjo-daro bangle pot text. -- Figure 6.17. Evidence for 575 as a syllable sign. -- Figure 6.18. Various contexts of sign 575. -- Figure 6.19 Possible relationship between signs and images on M-1919. -- Figure 6.20. Proposed values for some Indus signs. -- Figure 6.21 Proto-Dravidian verb case endings and associated signs -- Appendix I -- Automated Segmentation Of Indus Texts -- Figure AI.1 Segmentation of H-026 after Korvink (2006:68) -- Figure AI.2 Segmentation tree using the z-score method (Sinha et al., 2011) -- Figure AI.3 Logarithmic influence of initial sign frequency (given as percentage of total frequency) on the connectivity. -- Table AI.1 Segmentation parameter and their effect on the connectivity between signs. -- Figure AI.4 Example of a) highly structured text, b) less structured text, both 8 signs long. -- Figure AI.5 Step by step process of segmentation and final Multivariate Segmentation tree -- Figure AI.6 Segmentation tree of H-026. Compare segmentation results to figure AI.1. Figure AI.7 Mean tree index, mean connectivity and its standard deviation for different text classes.
A detailed examination of the Indus script. It presents new analysis based on an expansive text corpus using revolutionary analytical techniques developed specifically for the purpose of deciphering the Indus script.