See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/monumental-architecture-as-hieroglyphs.htmlArchitecture on Ancient Near East writing systems
Cover of ivory box. Ugarit. 14th century BCE with a characteristic hieroglyph of a woman battling two jackals. Comparable hieroglyphs get repeated on Indus writing artefacts. [Update note: The hoofs or paws are unclear on the animals. If the two animals are goats rebus readings of hieroglyphs: mẽḍī 'she-goat with curling horns' (CDIAL 10120) Rebus: mẽḍ 'iron' + kola 'woman' Rebus: kol 'working in iron, alloys' + kaṇḍe 'maize-cob' Rebus: kaṇḍ 'stone']
Akkadian cylinder seal, of Ibni-sharrum, scribe, 23rd century BCE. The hieroglyphs depict workers in kanḍ,‘stone’, lokhãḍ ‘iron’, kol,‘metal alloys’ and damgar, ‘merchants of tin mineral’.
Akkadian cylinder seal of scribe, ‘S’u-ilis’u, Meluhha interpreter’, i.e., translator of the Meluhhan language. The person carrying an antelope on his left hand is a Meluhha merchant. Glyph: ṭagara‘antelope’; தகர் takar, n. [T. tagaru, K. tagar.] sheep; ram. Rebus: tagara ‘tin’. damgar, tamkāru‘merchant’.
Stone-smithy guild on a Meluhha standard
Harappa Tablet. Pict-91 (Mahadevan) m0490At m0490B Mohenjodaro Tablet showing Meluhha combined standard of three standards carried in a procession, comparable to Tablet m0491.m0491 Tablet. Line drawing (right). This tablet showing three hieroglyphs may be called the Meluhha standard. Combined reading for the joined or ligatured glyphs is: dhatukõdā sangaḍa ‘mineral, turner, stone-smithy guild’. Dawn of the bronze age is best exemplified by this Mohenjo-daro tablet which shows a procession of three hieroglyphs carried on the shoulders of three persons. The hieroglyphs are: 1. Scarf carried on a pole (dhatu Rebus: mineral ore); 2. A young bull carried on a stand kõdāRebus: turner; 3. Portable standard device (Top part: lathe-gimlet; Bottom part: portable furnace sã̄gāḍ Rebus: stone-cutter sangatarāśū). sanghāḍo (Gujarati) cutting stone,
The procession is a celebration of the graduation of a stone-cutter as a metal-turner in a smithy/forge. A sangatarāśū ‘stone-cutter’ or lapidary of neolithic/chalolithic age had graduated into a metal turner’s workshop (koḍ), working with metallic minerals (dhatu) of the bronze age.
Three professions are described by the three hieroglyphs: scarf, young bull, standard device dhatu kõdā sã̄gāḍī Rebus words denote: ‘ mineral worker; metals turner-joiner (forge); worker on a lathe’ – associates (guild).
Elamite statue in gold. Department des Antiquites Orienteles, Musee du Louvre, Paris. J. de Morgan excavations, 1904 Sb 2758Jca. 1500-1200 BCE Tell of the Acropolis, Susa.(Another statue in silver shows a person carrying a goat). The person is shown carrying a bull on his left hand, comparable to the antelope carried by the Meluhhan merchant on Shu-ilishu cylinder seal. This hieroglyph is a phonetic determinant. : ḍangar‘bull’ (Meluhha) Rebus: ḍhangar‘blacksmith’ (Meluhha). Another possible rebus reading: damgar ‘merchant’. Categories of professions attested in Indus Writing Corpora
The inscriptions are categorized as follows, indicating the diversification of professions which were necessitated by the revolutionary trade opportunities and interactions among communities and artisan-trader guilds who created by the Bronze Age, attested by Meluhha settlements in Elam, the Persian Gulf, Sumer and Mesopotamia of Ancient Near East:
Section 1: Stone-work, masonry
Section 2: Stone-work, masonry and metal-work
Section 3: Array of instruments: mã̄ḍ; metal tools, ingots: khāṇḍā ḍhāḷako
Section 4: Engraver, carver
Section 5: Ivory turner, mason, tempered sharp tools, metalware, blacksmith working in alloys, ingots, workshop
Section 6: Bricklayer, mason, blacksmith, maker of metal tools, pots and pans – workshop
Section 7: Copper, iron merchant, alloy stone ore – eraka ibbo kol
Section 8: Stone-worker business, bronze-smith, iron-smith, working in minerals and alloy metals, metal tools, pots and pans, tin merchant, scribe
Section 9: Copper-smith, artificer, worker in alloy metals
Section 10: Scribe of workshop, warehouse, furnace of tin smithy, forge
Section 11: Shapes of Bronze Age weapons and tools made in Ancient Near East as tokens for accounting stoneware, metalware
Section 12: Artisans’ guilds pātra, ‘trough’; pattar, ‘merchant, guild’
Section 13: Tin merchant, blacksmith, lathe-turner
Section 14: Artificers working with stones, minerals, alloys, metals
Section 15: Bronze Age Smithy (Shahdad standard)
These sections present some examples of the professions associated with the Meluhhan trade – culled from the Indus Writing Corpora of nearly 7000 inscriptions which constitute celebration of the Bronze Age competence of artificers – lapidaries, masons and smiths.
Professions on Ancient Near East writing systems