Hieroglyphs on Warka vase read rebus as epigraphs

Abstract

Wark vase which is a carved alabaster stone vessel (height: ca. 105 cm.; upper diam.: 36 cm.), found in the Sumerian Inanna temple complex. The vase uses hieroglyphs and is, in effect, a ‘Rosetta stone’ to help decode early writing systems and to identify language(s) of the creators of this artifact. It can be called the ‘Meluhha rosetta stone’. The identification of clear, unambiguous, pictorial motifs carved on the Warka vase, as hieroglyphs is confirmed by parallels on Indus script corpora and select bronze-age artifacts (e.g. Uluburn shipwreck). 

Warka vase. Stone alabaster. Museum number: IM19606. Original Source: "The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago". http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/Images/strom/strom_fig019l.jpg

Clear, unambiguous, pictorial motifs carved on the Warka vase, are:

1. An antelope and a tiger are shown above two bun ingots atop a fire-altar. (Fig.1) The antelope and tiger hieroglyphs atop two ingots are: (i) ranku ‘antelope’. Read rebus: ranku ‘tin’. (ii) kola ‘tiger’. Read rebus: kol ‘alloy of five metals, pañcaloha’.

2. Between two storage jars containing ingots is shown a bull’s head with a ‘pellet’ between the horns. (Fig.2) mũh ‘face’. Read rebus: mũh ‘(metal) ingot.’ ḍhangar ‘bull’. Read rebus: ḍhangar ‘blacksmith (metalsmith)’. The ‘pellet’ hieroglyph is explained in Annex A. Notes on ‘pellet’ hieroglyph linked with bull/antelope.

3. A ram is shown ahead of the two storage jars. (Fig.3) The ram hieroglyph leading the two storage jars with ingots is tagaru ‘ram’ (Tulu). Read rebus: tamkāru, dagar, dakar, dam-gar, ‘(mint) merchant’. (Sumerian substrate).

4. A procession of bovidae and a set of sprouts are shown on the bottom registers. (Fig.4) (i) khar-warg ‘herd of sheep, goats’. Read rebus: khār ‘blacksmith’. Sheep and goats above 3 years of age are termed خر ورګ ḵẖar-warg and خر ورګه ḵẖar-wargaʿh. (Pushto). (ii) warak ʻwoolʼ(Wg.) Read rebus: wā̆rek ʻhouseʼ (Pr.), vāra -- ʻdoor, gate-way' (Sanskrit) (iii) tagaraka ‘tabernae montana coranaria’(Sanskrit). Read rebus: tagara ‘tin’ (Kannada). The hieroglyph tree: kuṭi ‘tree’; kuṭhi ‘smelter/furnace’ (Santali).

5. Two reed bundles adorned with scarves. (i) The reed hieroglyph: khāg, khāgṛā ʻreed for pensʼ(Bengali), khagaṛā ʻthe reed Saccharum spontaneum’(Oriya). Read rebus: kã̄gar ‘portable brazier’ (Kashmiri)] (ii) Scarf is ligatured to the reed post. dhaṭu ‘scarf’ (WPah.). Read rebus: dhatu ‘mineral’ (Santali) The reed bundles adorn the temple-gateway: wā̆rek ʻhouseʼ (Pr.), vāra -- ʻdoor, gate-way' (Sanskrit).

The pictorial motifs narrated on the vase in four registers are not mere decorations. It is not mere coincidence that many pictorial motifs on the Warka vase recur on Indus script corpora. 

The hieroglyphs on the Warka vase conveyed an economic message in the context of deposits of treasure into the (Inanna temple) treasury (as evidenced by the narrative of the second register which shows large storage jars, liquid containing jar, and baskets being carried in).

I suggest that the pictorial motifs are hieroglyphs which can be read rebus. I also suggest that the creators of the pictorial motifs on the Warka vase were speakers of a language which underlies the 6000+ inscriptions of Indus script corpora. 

What was the underlying language of the message? One language source is the Indian sprachbund (language union), which can also be called ‘Meluhha’. 

What was the message (that is, what treasures were carried for depositing in the temple treasury)? Treasure carried into the temple treasury included: tin ingots, ingots of minerals/metals and alloyed metal ingots.

On the hieroglyphs of the top register, a goat or ram walks towards a pair of reeds ligatured with scarfs. Two large storage jars contain ingots. (That these relate to metal is indicated by the phonetic determinant of a bull’s head dangar ‘bull’; danger ‘blacksmith’). The Uruk (Warka) vase with its hieroglyphs comparable to Indian hieroglyphs and the identification of a few substratum Meluhha words in Sumerian – is a pointer to this possibility of Meluhhan presence and influence. Source of image: “The Warka Vase or the Uruk Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Like the Narmer Palette from Egypt, it is one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture, dated to c. 3,200–3000 BC. The vase was discovered as a collection of fragments by German Assyriologists in their sixth excavation season at Uruk in 1933/1934. It is named after the modern village of Warka - known as Uruk to the ancient Sumerians.” http://arthistorypart1.blogspot.in/2011/01/sumerian-art-warka-vase.html cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warka_Vase

Indian sprachbund (linguistic area or language union)

Indian linguistic area, that is an area of ancient times when various language-speakers interacted and absorbed language features from one another and made them their own. (Emeneau, 1956; Kuiper, 1948; Masica, 1971; Przyludski, 1929; Southworth, 2005).