Ancient Near East archaeological context: transition to Bronze Age Indus writing of mleccha stone-ware, metal-ware words
Introduction
Introduction
Some references have been obtained from a discussion thread on Indo-Eurasian_Research Yahoo group. I am grateful to Judith Lerner, Jacob Lebovitch Dahl, Richard Meadow for the insights and leads provided which, in my view, reinforce my rebus readings in the context of Bronze Age artifacts, of inscriptions of Indus Writing on Ancient Near East. The thread starts (Jul 20, 2006) with subject line: "clay bullae and tokens from Sibri (Pakistan)?")
L'Iran et les régions voisines au IIIè millénaire Tepe Yahya, Shahdad, Sibri, Mehergarh are links en route between 'Elam' and 'Meluhha'. All these sites have provided evidence of lapidary-, smithy-work of the Bronze Age.
Indus writing is NOT 'oral' literature. The writing is intended to document trade and workshop processes of the Bronze Age smiths and lapidaries and the writing system is based on rebus method -- rendering mleccha language metallurgy-related or bronze-age workshop-related sememes as glyphs on inscriptions.
The sememes are attested in many languages of Indian sprachbund providing a framework for outlining features of mleccha (Meluhha) language of artisans/traders of Bronze Age times.
The corpora now include nearly 7000 inscriptions of Indus writing, all of which are related to stone-, mineral-, metal-ware catalogs, continuing the bullae-tokens tradition of account-keeping in Bronze Age. My thesis is that the Indus Writing was intended to create stone-, metalware catalogs for accounting in Bronze Age workshops and for Bronze Age trade across an extensive civilization area which extended beyong the Sarasvati and Indus river basins. Meluhha (mleccha) settlements of Ancient Near East are attested in cuneiform records. The rebus readings of Indus inscriptions are based on the underlying speech, mleccha words of Indian sprachbund. The rebus method is comparable to the Narmer palette hieroglyphs to denote the name 'Narmer' with two glyphs: N'r 'cuttle-fish' and M'r 'awl'. As of now, Indus writing is a contender for the designation 'earliest writing system' given the inscription discovered by HARP in Harappa, dated to ca. 3500 BCE and reported by BBC. The image accompanying the BBC report has been later replaced by Meadow with the following potsherd inscription:
Earliest Indus writing sample, ca. 3500 BCE. Rebus reading: tagaraka 'tabernae montana' or 'wild tulip' (Sanskrit) Rebus: tagara‘tin’ (Kannada) tagromi 'tin, metal alloy' (Kuwi) takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin (Ta.); tin, tinned iron plate (Malayalam); tagarm tin (Kota); tagara, tamara, tavara id. (Kannada) tamaru, tamara, tavara id. (Tamil): tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. (Telugu); ṭagromi tin metal, alloy (Kuwi); tamara id. (Sanskrit.)(DEDR 3001). trapu tin (AV.); tipu (Pali); tau, taua lead (Pkt.); tũ_ tin (P.); ṭau zinc, pewter (Or.); tarūaum lead (OG.); tarvu~ (G.); tumba lead (Si.)(CDIAL 5992).The 'tulip' glyph is seen on a cylinder seal of Ur (cf. Gadd) and also on an axe from Tabraq, on Warka vase:
Tell Abraq axe[i]with epigraph (‘tulip’ glyph + a person raising his arm above his shoulder and wielding a tool + dotted circles on body).
tabar = a broad axe (Punjabi). Rebus: tam(b)ra ‘copper’ tagara ‘tabernae montana’, ‘tulip’. Rebus: tagara ‘tin’.
[i]After Fig. 7 Holly Pittman, 1984, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 29-30.
Impression from a cylinder seal.urseal6 Cylinder seal; BM 122947; U. 16220 (cut down into Ur III mausolea from Larsa level; U. 16220), enstatite; Legrain, 1951, No. 632; Collon, 1987, Fig. 611. Humped bull stands before a plant, feeding from a round manger or a bundle of fodder (or, probably, a cactus); behind the bull is a scorpion and two snakes; above the whole a human figure, placed horizontally, with fantastically long arms and legs, and rays about his head.
Rebus reading of scorpion glyph: bicha‘scorpion’ (Assamese) Rebus: bica‘stone ore’ (Munda)
Marielle Santoni refers to 'rattles' of Sibri which are the Ur-type bullae with tokens to count some articles. His article is "Sibri and the South Cemetary of Mehrgarh: third millennium connections between the northern Kachi Plain (Pakistan) and Central Asia", in South Asian Archaeology 1981, proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe (Cambridge University Press).
Marielle Santoni states: " A number of terra cotta objects was recovered from Sibri including pawns, small wheels, spindle-whorls, rattles (Fig. 8.4C), and sling-balls....One of the rattles, with circular impressions on it, looks very much like a specimen from Mehrgarh and one from Shahdad(Hakemi, 1972: Plate XXIIA). Another example (Fig. 8.4C) bears incised signs which could represent numbers."
Marielle Santoni summarises: "In conclusion, the South Cemetery of Mehrgarh and the settlement site of Sibri fill the chronological and cultural gap which, until now, had existed in our understanding of pr- and protohistory in the Kachi Plain. In addition, this material demonstrates the presence of a strong, Central-Asian related element on the margins of the Indus Valley at the same time that the Harappan civilisation flourished to the east. Future work concerned with this time period in the north Kachi Plain and throughout Baluchistan must now focus on defining the internal dynamics of the late third and early second millennium in the region and on clarifying the relations between peoples of that are and of the Indus Valley."
This insightful note by Marielle Santonini should make researchers pause and revisit the Sibri cylinder seal which coexisted with the bullae-tokens system of accounting. The seal dramatically depicts a series of indeterminate number of notches together with glyphs of a zebu and a tiger.
The glyphs of zebu and tiger are recurring glyphs on Indus writing. The cylinder-maker of Sibri had demonstrated the use of glyphs to augment the complex token-shapes to facilitate precise identification and descriptions of hundreds of artifacts being produced in Bronze Age workshops.
The accounting system had advanced beyond bullae-tokens to a writing system to prepare stone-, metal-ware catalogs on thousands of inscriptions using mleccha language for Indus writing.
See: Hakemi, A. 1997. Shahdad: Archaeological Excavations of a Bronze Age Center in Iran. Translated by S.M.S. Sajjadi. New Delhi: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
The finds of Shahdad; three plates are taken from the 1972 Catalogue: Note the pictographic writing on red ceramics (Plates XXIIB and XXIIC). These includes possible bullae with ‘tokens’ representing some articles being counted.
Plate XXIIIB includes picture of two footprints. This glyph occurs on Indus writing.
Disk seal (glyptic catalogue no. 58; 15 mm in dia. X 8 mm) Excavations at Tepe Yahya, 3rd millennium, p. 154 Double-sided steatite stamp seal with opposing foot prints and six-legged creature on opposite sides. Tepe Yahya. Seal impressions of two sides of a seal. Six-legged lizard and opposing footprints shown on opposing sides of a double-sided steatite stamp seal perforated along the lateral axis.
Lamberg- Karlovsky 1971: fig. 2C Shahr-i-Soktha Stamp seal shaped like a foot.
Shahdad seal (Grave 78). It is significant that a footprint is used as a seal at Shahdad. The glyph is read rebus as rebus word for 'iron':Rebus readings:
Glyph: meṭṭu ‘foot’. Rebus: meḍ ‘iron’ (Ho.Mu.) dula ‘pair’ (Kashmiri); dul ‘cast (metal)(Santali). Six legs of a lizard is an enumeration of six ‘portable furnaces’ ; rebus: kakra. ‘lizard’; kan:gra ‘portable furnace’. bhaṭa ‘six’ (G.) rebus: baṭa = kiln (Santali); baṭa = a kind of iron (G.) bhaṭṭhī f. ‘kiln, distillery’, awāṇ. bhaṭh; P. bhaṭṭh m., °ṭhī f. ‘furnace’, bhaṭṭhā m. ‘kiln’; S. bhaṭṭhī keṇī ‘distil (spirits)’. Read rebus as :dul (pair) meḍ ‘cast iron’; kan:grabhaṭa‘portable furnace’.
Glyph: ‘foot, hoof’: Glyph: ‘hoof’: Ku. khuṭo ʻ leg, foot ʼ, °ṭī ʻ goat's leg ʼ; N. khuṭo ʻ leg, foot ʼ(CDIAL 3894). S. khuṛī f. ʻ heel ʼ; WPah. paṅ. khūṛ ʻ foot ʼ. khura m. ʻ hoof ʼ KātyŚr̥. 2. *khuḍa -- 1 (khuḍaka -- , khula° ʻ ankle -- bone ʼ Suśr.). [← Drav. T. Burrow BSOAS xii 376: it belongs to the word -- group ʻ heel <-> ankle -- knee -- wrist ʼ, see *kuṭṭha -- ](CDIAL 3906). Ta. kuracu, kuraccai horse's hoof. Ka. gorasu, gorase, gorise, gorusu hoof. Te. gorija, gorise, (B. also) gorije, korije id. / Cf. Skt.khura- id. (DEDR 1770). Allograph: (Kathiawar) khũṭ m. ʻ Brahmani or zebu bull ʼ (G.) Rebus: khũṭ ‘community, guild’ (Santali)
Alternative reading: meṭ sole of foot, footstep, footprint (Ko.); meṭṭu step, stair, treading, slipper (Te.)(DEDR 1557). Rebus: मेढ ‘merchant’s helper’ (Pkt.); meḍ ‘iron’ (Munda).
Sibri:
Source: Jarrige, Catherine, Jean-François Jarrige, Richard H. Meadow, and Gonzague Quivron, editors (1995/1996) Mehrgarh: Field Reports 1974-1985 - From Neolithic Times to the Indus Civilization. The Reports of Eleven Seasons of Excavations in Kachi District, Balochistan, by the French Archaeological Mission to Pakistan. Sindh, Pakistan: The Department of Culture and Tourism, Government of Sindh, Pakistan, in Collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The text on pg. 326 says:
6.6. Terracotta
Pawns, small wheels, spindle whorls, rattles (fig. 7.32C), sling-balls, and two crucibles, all in terracotta, were collected, together with a large number of discs formed from potsherds. One of the rattles with circular impressions on its surface is very similar to a specimen from a deposit of Period VIII at Mehrgarh, and another one, so far exceptional, bears incised signs and dots that could represent numbers (fig. 7.31C, 7.32C).
6.7. Seals
The seals are of two types. The most common type is the compartmented seal in bronze or in stone. Three specimens have a triangular shape while a terracotta cake bears several imprints of a square-shaped seal with a cruciform motif (fig. 7.31A). The second type is represented by a single piece, a black steatite cylinder seal with knob (fig. 7.31D). It was engraved with the representation of a zebu facing a lion and, on the base, a scorpion. This cylinder seal was found associated with two beads in black steatite and must have been part of a necklace as indicated by its suspension hole. This seal is very similar to a few cylinder seals found in Margiana, in particular at the site of Taip, where such objects are considered to reveal
Mesopotamian influence. One seal from Taip bears the representation of a zebu.
6.8. Copper/Bronze
In the same square (2K) where the cylinder seal was found, a bronze shaft-holed axe-adze of a type also often found in the Murghabo-Bactrian area was discovered (fig. 7.32B). A famous example of such an axe-adze comes from Mohenjo-daro. Other objects in bronze or copper include a few pins.
6.9. Figurines
Terracotta figurines, all made of sherd-tempered ware, were found in large numbers (fig. 7.32B). The main type is a "violin-shaped" female figurine. Eyes and breasts are "applique" as is the coiffure in some cases. Some of the figurines also bear necklaces or ornamentsrepresented by small incised holes. Most of the time, however, only indications of sex are represented including applique breasts and small incised points marking the pubic area and the armpits. This violin-shaped type of figurine is quite original although it does have parallel among a few specimens from sites in the lower Murghab Delta and from later contexts at Pirak and in India (Navdatoli).
6.6. Terracotta
Pawns, small wheels, spindle whorls, rattles (fig. 7.32C), sling-balls, and two crucibles, all in terracotta, were collected, together with a large number of discs formed from potsherds. One of the rattles with circular impressions on its surface is very similar to a specimen from a deposit of Period VIII at Mehrgarh, and another one, so far exceptional, bears incised signs and dots that could represent numbers (fig. 7.31C, 7.32C).
6.7. Seals
The seals are of two types. The most common type is the compartmented seal in bronze or in stone. Three specimens have a triangular shape while a terracotta cake bears several imprints of a square-shaped seal with a cruciform motif (fig. 7.31A). The second type is represented by a single piece, a black steatite cylinder seal with knob (fig. 7.31D). It was engraved with the representation of a zebu facing a lion and, on the base, a scorpion. This cylinder seal was found associated with two beads in black steatite and must have been part of a necklace as indicated by its suspension hole. This seal is very similar to a few cylinder seals found in Margiana, in particular at the site of Taip, where such objects are considered to reveal
Mesopotamian influence. One seal from Taip bears the representation of a zebu.
6.8. Copper/Bronze
In the same square (2K) where the cylinder seal was found, a bronze shaft-holed axe-adze of a type also often found in the Murghabo-Bactrian area was discovered (fig. 7.32B). A famous example of such an axe-adze comes from Mohenjo-daro. Other objects in bronze or copper include a few pins.
6.9. Figurines
Terracotta figurines, all made of sherd-tempered ware, were found in large numbers (fig. 7.32B). The main type is a "violin-shaped" female figurine. Eyes and breasts are "applique" as is the coiffure in some cases. Some of the figurines also bear necklaces or ornamentsrepresented by small incised holes. Most of the time, however, only indications of sex are represented including applique breasts and small incised points marking the pubic area and the armpits. This violin-shaped type of figurine is quite original although it does have parallel among a few specimens from sites in the lower Murghab Delta and from later contexts at Pirak and in India (Navdatoli).
A second type of figurine is represented by a seated callipyge individual while a third type is a standing, flat figurine with small applique breasts. In contrast to the large number of human figurines, very few animal figurines (three humped bulls and some others more difficult to identify) were found.
In Jarrige, Jean-François (1994) The final phase of the Indus occupation a Nausharo and its connection with the following cultural complex of Mehrgarh VIII. In: Asko Parpola and Petteri Koskikallio, eds., South Asian Archaeology 1993, Volume 1, pp. 295-313. Hesinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Jarrige discusses relations between Central Asia, Balochistan, and the Indus Valley.
Scanned pages: pp. 360-361 (Sibri1996.pdf)
Rebus reading of + glyph with dots on four corners of the + glyph, on the bulla shown on 7.31a. The + glyph may denote a fire-altar (of temple). kaṇḍ‘furnace, fire-altar’ (Santali) khondu id. (Kashmiri) kŏnḍ क्वंड् ‘a hole dug in the ground for receiving consecrated fire’ (Kashmiri) kunḍa ‘consecrated fire-pit’.ayaskāṇḍa is explained in Panini as ‘excellent quantity of iron’ or ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’. [It is possible that there were allographs to depict the word: kāṇḍa. The allographs are: arrow-glyph; large dot; notch as a short numeral stroke (for example, ligatured on a fish-glyph or a 'rim-of-jar' glyph; dotted circle.]
Example of use of allograph on a seal from Banawali showing women acrobats leaping over a water-buffalo:
Impression and line-drawing of a steatite stamp seal with a water-buffalo and leapers. Buffalo attack or bull-leaping scene, Banawali (after UMESAO 2000:88, cat. no. 335). A figure is impaled on the horns of the buffalo; a woman acrobat wearing bangles on both arms and a long braid flowing from the head, leaps over the buffalo bull. Two Indus script glyphs in front of the buffalo.
Glyphs: ‘1. arrow, 2. jag/notch’:
1. kaṇḍa ‘arrow’ (Skt.) H.kãḍerām. ʻ a caste of bow -- and arrow -- makers (CDIAL 3024).Or.kāṇḍa,kã̄ṛʻstalk, arrow ʼ(CDIAL 3023). ayaskāṇḍa‘a quantity of iron, excellent iron’ (Pāṇ.gaṇ)
2. खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A jag, notch, or indentation (as upon the edge of a tool or weapon). (Marathi) Rebus: khāṇḍā‘tools, pots and pans, metal-ware’.
The message of stone ore is reinforced by the glyphics of buffalo and overthrow of an acrobat woman (kola‘woman’; rebus: kol‘smithy’):
Rebus: kāḍ ‘stone’. Ga. (Oll.) kanḍ, (S.) kanḍu (pl. kanḍkil) stone (DEDR 1298). mayponḍi kanḍ whetstone; (Ga.)(DEDR 4628). (खडा) Pebbles or small stones: also stones broken up (as for a road), metal. खडा [ khaḍā ] m A small stone, a pebble. 2 A nodule (of lime &c.): a lump or bit (as of gum, assafœtida, catechu, sugar-candy): the gem or stone of a ring or trinket: a lump of hardened fæces or scybala: a nodule or lump gen. CDIAL 3018 kāṭha m. ʻ rock ʼ lex. [Cf. kānta -- 2 m. ʻ stone ʼ lex.]
baṭi trs. To overturn, to overset or ovethrow; to turn or throw from a foundation or foothold (Santali) baṭi to turn on the ground to any extent, or roll; uaurbaṭi, to upset or overthrow by shoving or pushing; mabaṭi to overturn by cutting, to fell trees; baṭi-n rflx. v., to lay oneself down; ba-p-aṭi repr. V., to throw each other; baṭi-o to be overturned, overthrown; ba-n-at.i vrb.n., the extent of the overturning, falling down or rolling; baṭi-n rlfx.v., to lie down; baṭi-aṛagu to bring or send down a slope by rolling; baṭi bar.a to roll again and again or here and there; baṭi-bur to turn over by rolling (Mundari) Rebus: baṭi, bhaṭi ‘furnace’ (H.) Rebus: baṭa = a kind of iron (G.) bhaṭa ‘furnace’ (G.) baṭa = kiln (Santali). bhaṭa = an oven, kiln, furnace (Santali) baṭhi furnace for smelting ore (the same as kuṭhi) (Santali)
Sibri cylinder seal with Indus writing hieroglyphs: notches, zebu, tiger, scorpion?. Each dot on the corner of the + glyph and the short numeral strokes on a cylinder seal of Sibri, may denote a notch: खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A jag, notch, or indentation (as upon the edge of a tool or weapon). (Marathi) Rebus: khāṇḍā‘tools, pots and pans, metal-ware’.
The + glyph of Sibri evidence is comparable to the large-sized 'dot', dotted circles and + glyph shown on this Mohenjo-daro seal m0352 with dotted circles repeated on 5 sides A to F. Rebus readings of m0352 glyphs:
1. Round dot like a blob -- . Glyph: raised large-sized dot -- (gōṭī ‘round pebble);
2. Dotted circle khaṇḍa ‘A piece, bit, fragment, portion’; kandi ‘bead’;
3. A + shaped structure where the glyphs 1 and 2 are infixed. The + shaped structure is kaṇḍ ‘a fire-altar’ (which is associated with glyphs 1 and 2)..
Rebus readings are: 1. khoṭ m. ʻalloyʼ; 2. khaṇḍā‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’; 3. kaṇḍ ‘furnace, fire-altar, consecrated fire’.
Four ‘round spot’; glyphs around the ‘dotted circle’ in the center of the composition: gōṭī ‘round pebble; Rebus 1: L. khoṭf ʻalloy, impurityʼ, °ṭā ʻalloyedʼ, awāṇ. khoṭā ʻforgedʼ; P. khoṭ m. ʻbase, alloyʼ M.khoṭā ʻalloyedʼ (CDIAL 3931)Rebus 2: kōṭhī ] f (कोष्ट S) A granary, garner, storehouse, warehouse, treasury, factory, bank. khoṭā ʻalloyedʼ metal is produced from kaṇḍ‘furnace, fire-altar’ yielding khaṇḍā‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’. This word khaṇḍā is denoted by the dotted circles.
Rebus readings of zebu and ‘tiger’? on the cylinder seal shown on 7.31d: khũṭ m. ʻ Brahmani or zebu bull ʼ (G.) Rebus: khũṭ ‘community, guild’ (Santali) kola ‘tiger’ Rebus: kol ‘working in iron’; pañcaloha, alloy of five metals(Tamil).
aṭar‘a splinter’ (Ma.) aṭaruka‘to burst, crack, sli off,fly open; aṭarcca’ splitting, a crack’; aṭarttuka‘to split, tear off, open (an oyster) (Ma.); aḍaruni ‘to crack’ (Tu.) (DEDR 66) Rebus: aduru‘native, unsmelted metal’ (Kannada) aduru‘gaṇiyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru’, that is, ore taken from the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Kannada)
The numerical strokes on the seal may denote the number of ‘ingots?’ of iron made for the guild by the artisan who owned the cylinder seal. It may also denote that he was a worker in ‘iron’ for the smithy guild. An allograph to denote a guild is: footprint shown on some seals discussed in previous section.
Source: "Catalogue de l'exposition: LUT/xabis 'Shahdad'- Premier Symposium Annuel de la recherche Archéologique en Iran, Festival de la Culture et des arts, 1972," and published in Tehran. The text on p. 20 (French portion of the publication) identifies the bulla (No. 54 in the catalogue) as "Boule en terre cuite rouge creuse qui contient des cailloux. Décor estampé. Diam: 6 cm, Xabis "Shahdad" Kerman. 2ème moité du IV mill. av. J.-C. No. F.258/48."
Kalyanaraman
July 25, 2013