"Cylinder Seal with King or God and Vanquished Lion" (Old Akkadian) Greenstone. Diam: 13/16 in. (2.1 cm) The Walters Art Museum. Accession Number: 42.674 The scene on this seal features a central motif of a leaf stylized as a tree. On one side, a bearded hero is holding an inverted bovid; on the other, a bull man is holding an inverted lion. There are cuneiform inscriptions running through the scene in two places.
With Naram-Sin, the king not only being called "Lord of the Four Quarters (of the Earth)", but also elevated to the ranks of the dingir (= gods). There is a Meluhha cognate: ṭhākur with variants ḍhangar 'blacksmith'. On this seal, the bull is the hero (hieroglyph ḍangar bull is rebus: ḍhangar 'blacksmith') subduing lion. (hieroglyph aryeh‘lion’ rebus: arā ‘brass’).
The centerpiece hieroglyph is: kuṭi ‘tree’ rebus: kuṭhi‘smelter furnace’ (Santali) kamaṛkom = fig leaf (Santali.) kamarmaṛā (Has.), kamaṛkom (Nag.); the petiole or stalk of a leaf (Mundari) kamaḍha 'ficus religiosa' (Sanskrit) Rebus: kammaṭa‘coiner, mint, a portable furnace for melting precious metals (Telugu) kampaṭṭa ‘mint’ (Ma.) kampaṭṭamcoinage, coin (Tamil); kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint (Malayalam); kammatia coiner (Kannada)(DEDR 1236) kammaṭa = coinage, mint (Ka.M.) kampaṭṭa-k-kūṭam mint; kampaṭṭa-k-kāraṉ-coiner; kampaṭṭa- muḷai die, coining stamp (Tamil)
Cylinder seal impression, Mesopotamia. The bulls/bullmen flank a mountain topped by a leaf. British Museum No. 89308 ḍāngā = hill, dry upland (B.); ḍã̄g mountain-ridge (H.)(CDIAL 5476). Rebus: dhangar‘blacksmith’ (Maithili) ḍangar‘blacksmith’(Hindi) loa ‘ficus religiosa’ Rebus: lo ‘copper’. dula‘pair’ Rebus: dul ‘cast (metal)’. Thus, a cast (metal) coppersmith.
See: Meluhha hieroglyphs. 4,000 year-old seal and weight unearthed in Rajasthan -- VN Prabhakar, ASI (February 2014 report) of the find. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/02/4000-year-old-seal-and-weight-unearthed.html for the locus of Meluhha metallurgists on Sarasvati River Basin. The above cylinder seals are two examples of takṣat vāk 'incised speech'.
I suggest that the writing system using Meluhha hieroglyphs read rebus was a celebration of the bronze age with Meluhha artisans revolutionizing the interaction area of two doabs -- Mesopotamia and Sarasvati-Sindhu doab -- with alloying and lost-wax casting techniques in metallurgy.
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
February 7, 2014