Not
one ancient literate civilization is known — including those
that wrote routinely on perishable materials — that
didn't also leave long texts behind on
durable materials.
That's
all it takes to refute the 130-year-old Indus-script myth — and
it is only one of numerous obvious arguments. Despite the fact
that the Indus symbols were around for at least 700
years (and arguably much longer), with 'inscriptions' (if that's
the right word) found on thousands of objects of many different
durable materials, the longest Indus 'text' on
a single surface is 17 signs long*,
and the average has under 4.6 signs — which is typical
of many other nonlinguistic symbol systems.
Note
that we have much longer texts even from so-called proto-writing
systems (e.g., proto-cuneiform and proto-Elamite) and special limited-use
scripts like the Ogham system (used in medieval Britain). Compare
the longest Indus 'text' with a proto-Elamite accounting
tablet.
For
discussion of how Indus symbols functioned,
see Farmer,
Sproat, and Witzel 2004. The evidence in this paper
is further expanded in Farmer, Weber, Barela, Sproat, and Witzel
(see Paper
Abstract) and other papers.
See
our $10,000 Prize Challenge to 'Indus Script' Adherents
*Seal
M-314, illustrated in the links to this page. Old-style Indus-script
adherents (including Parpola, Possehl, Kak, Wells) have claimed
that the longest Indus 'inscription' is 26 signs long. The reference
is to two examples of a mass-produced molded object (M-494 and
M-495) on which, if you add up all the symbols on three separate
surfaces, gives you this number. The claim that
this is a continuous 'message' is a implausible,
and the view that the 'message' involves 'writing' is even weaker:
three of the symbols in a row on one of the surfaces represents what
is known to be a sacrificial bowl. For the evidence, see
photographs.
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- 2008 Steve
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