Writing

Articles on inscriptions, the script or sign system, iconography and writing in the Indus Valley Civilization from the earliest appearances of potters marks on. Includes articles by leading scholars of the Indus script, including Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan.

The Indus Script: Invention and Use of a Bronze Age Writing System

Dennys Frenez

A well-illustrated 140 slide PDF that explores the Indus script, origins, writing direction and more. While the slides by Indus scholar Dennys Frenez lack his narration, many of the slides are self-explanatory and provide a rich visual overview of the Indus civilization its writing and the many issues involved.

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A Note on the Muruku Sign of the Indus Script in light of the Mayiladuthurai Stone Axe Discovery

Iravatham Mahadevan

A proposed Indus sign reading of Muruku on a stone axe found in South India.

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Growing in a Foreign World: For a History of the "Meluha Villages" in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millenium BCE

Massimo Vidale

A fascinating article that gathers together all facts about Indus settlements and trading with ancient Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE.

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Agricultural Terms in the Indus Script

Iravatham Mahadevan

Iravatham Mahadevan explores a set of ancient Indus signs that he believes are related to agriculture using comparisons to signs in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations.

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Shu-ilishu's Cylinder Seal

Gregory L. Possehl

A Mesopotamian cylinder seal referring to the personal translator of the ancient Indus or Meluhan language, Shu-ilishu, who lived around 2020 BCE during the late Akkadian period.