Konar Sandal marble cylinder seal, wealth-accounting ledger, Indus Script meluhha metalwork catalogue

The paper is at https://www.harappa.com/…/indus-components-iconography-whit…

The first part of the article summarizes what we know about the Jiroft civilization so far, its apparent origins in the late 5th millennium BCE, how it flourished at the height of the Indus civilization, and the tantalizing facts about connections between the two. Could it have been the ancient nation and state of
Marhashi/Parahshum about which so little is known but which would have been at the cross-roads of so many cultures? What could have been the function of these so-called whorl seals, only found so far here, at Mohenjo-daro, Allahdino and Kalibangan?

Cylinder seal photograph courtesy of Halil Rud Archaeological Project.

Konar Sandal white marble cylinder seal: metalwork repertoire catalogue

Massimo Vidale and Dennys Frenez, 2015, Indus components in the iconography of a white marble cylinder seal from Konar Sandal South (Kerman, Iran) in: South Asian Studies Vol. 31, No. 1, pp.144-154

"This paper presents a detailed analysis of the iconography carved on a cylinder seal found in a metallurgical sitewithin the archaeological complex of Konar Sandal South, near Jiroft, in the Halil river valley of the Kerman province, south-eastern Iran. This seal is made of a whitish marble and  even if heavily worn by use it retainstraces of different animal figures. These animals represent the translation into local style of a rare but characteristic iconography found in the seal production of the Indus Civilization. The merging into a single seal of different animals, some of which clearly belong to the standard animal series of the Indus seals, might have provided theowner with a special authority that allowed him/her to hold different administrative functions. Moreover, the discovery at Konar Sandal South of a cylinder seal bearing an Indus-related iconography might further testify to the direct interest of Indus merchants and probably craftsmen in trade exchanges with a major early urban site in south-eastern Iran."https://www.academia.edu/11850285/Indus_Components_in_the_Iconography_of_a_White_Marble_Cylinder_Seal_from_Konar_Sandal_South_Kerman_Iran_ 

Map showing the main sites of Middle Asia in the third millennium BC (whorls indicate the presence of Indus and Indus-likeseals bearing multiple heads of different animals arranged in whirl-like motif).

Drawing of the animals carved on the cylinder seal found at Konar Sandal South.

"The cylinder seal published by Pittman is 23.97 mm long and has a maximum diameter at the base of 12.42mm. It is made of whitish marble with pale brown shadows...This seal has a zebu depicted in front of a small round object...The main subject of this seal and its iconographic arrangement are clearly Indus, but the engraving technique based on drill-holes links it to the copper seal from Konar Sandal South and with other stamp seals found in Oman, further stressing the intense cultural interactions that occurred between Eastern Arabia, Iran and the Indus Valley during the second half of the third millennium BCE...The second creature is an Indus unicorn...Image 3.3...probably belong to the head of an Indus buffalo...Image 3.4...may represent the long ears of a large, evidently disproportionate, hare or rabbit...Image 3.5...(maybe) a markhor wild goat (Capra folconeri) or a blackbuck antelope (Antilope cervicapra)...Considered all together, these animals may symbolize something more than a simple list or procession, representing instead the physical disembodiment of a concept represented on two similar Indus whirl-like images on stamp seals...In general, the Halil Rud animal imagery more directly linked to the iconography of the Indus civilization suggests a precise knowledge of very important eastern symbols, but also a strategic will of subverting their original implications, adapting them to the local style and tradition. More likely, the cylinder seal found at Konar Sandal South bears the linear translation of a similar rotatory template...The uncommon iconographies with multiple animal heads present in Indus seals production are still a mystery, but the most reasonable addumption is that animals and fantastic creatures represented different identities, social roles, and/or social segment of the developing universe...The white marble cylinder seal on study was found inthe excavation of Trench IX, a large trench (15 x 20 m)dug in a low mound  c. 500 m south-east of Konar Sandal South. In the same area, eight furnaces built onceramic jars operated on massive mud-bricks platforms.As stated by the excavator: Close to the furnaces, clear evidence of craft activitywas found including nearly five kilos of copper slag,fragments of ingots, and open molds. In addition, a number of copper and bronze objects and tools suchas chisels, stone vessels in marble, and steatite/chlorite,microlithic tools, and a large number of clay objects possibly connected with pyrotechnical activities havealso been recovered. It was evidently a neighbourhood occupied by a com-munity specialized in roasting and smelting copper ores and casting various types of artefacts in moulds and thorough lost-wax processes...The presence of a cylinder sealbearing a distinctive even if rare – Indus iconographysupports the hypothesis of a specific interest and actualfrequentation of Indus merchants and craftsmen, or of families maintaining formal ties with the Indus communities, in the copper ore deposits of the Kerman-Halilriver region. (Note: Originally put forward in S. Ashtana, 'Harappans interest in Kirman', Man and Environment, 3 (1979), 55-60. See also S. Ashtana, 'Harappan trade in metals and minerals: a regional approach, in Harappan civilization: a recent perspective, ed. by GL Possehl, 2nd edn, New Delhi, Oxford & IBH, 1993, pp. 271-86)."

Hieroglyph: पोळ (p. 534) [ pōḷa ] m A bull dedicated to the gods, marked with a trident and discus, and set at large (Marathi)

Rebus: pōḷa 'magnetite' (metal)
Hieroglyph: koḍiyum ‘young bull’ (G.) koḍ ’horn’ (Kuwi) koṭiyum ‘rings on neck; a wooden circle put round the neck of an animal’ (Gujarati.) खोंडा [khōṇḍā] m A कांबळा of which one end is formed into a cowl or hood (Marathi). kõdā ‘to turn in a lathe’(B.)खोंड (p. 216) [ khōṇḍa ] m A young bull, a bullcalf. कोंडवाड [ kōṇḍavāḍa ] n f C (कोंडणें & वाडा) A pen or fold for cattle. Rebus: কুঁদ (p. 0238) [ kun̐da ] n a (turner's) lathe kundAr 'workshop of metals turner (mixer of metals to create alloys) or artisan working in a smithy/forge' -- 'a brass-worker, engraver, turner'.  कोंद kōnda ‘engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems’ (Marathi) kũdār ‘turner, brass-worker’(Bengali) খোদকার [ khōdakāra ] n an engraver; a carver (Oriya). 

Hieroglyph: combined animals: सांगड (p. 840) [ sāṅgaḍa f A body formed of two or more (fruits, animals, men) linked or joined together. (Marathi)

Hieroglyph multiplex normally shown in front of the one-horned young bull: sãghāṛɔ 'lathe' (Gujarati. Desi). Rebus: sanghāṭa 'collection, binding together, alloying'.  

Rebus: Vajra Sanghāta 'binding together': Mixture of 8 lead, 2 bell-metal, 1 iron rust constitute adamantine glue. Vajra sanghāta 'alloying, binding together': Mixture of 8 lead, 2 bell-metal, 1 iron rust constitute adamantine glue. The context is clearly metallic mixing practised on a fire-altar, a furnace/smelter.