https://tinyurl.com/y26gb4td
A number of hieroglyphs on cylinder seals of Ancient Near East have been explained as Meluhha rebus expessions in Indus Script cipher. What is the archaeological evidence for the presence of Meluhha speakers (of Indian sprachbund, 'language union') in Ancient Near East (ANE)?
I submit three clusters of evidences:
1. Attestation in cuneiform records of Meluhha artisans/merchants and their settlements in ANE;
2. Shu-ilishu cylinder seal which shows him in an Akkadian inscription to be a translator of Meluhha; Mari priest hoisting an Indus Script standard of one-horned young bull in a procesion; and
3. Archaeometallurgical research which has proved the provenance of Meluhha copper in ANE.
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Map of Meluhha and Southwest Asia (inset Bahrain) (After Fig. 1 Eric Olijdam, 2008, A possible Central Asian origin for the seal-impressed jar from the Temple Tower' at Failaka), in:Eric Olijdam & RH Spoor, eds, Intercultural relations between South and Southwest Asia, Studiesin Commemoration of ECL During Caspers (1934-1996), BAR Intrnational Series 1826 (2008): 268-287).
Notes: 1. See:
Tracing Meluhha in Rigveda and Cuneiform texts of Ancient Near East https://tinyurl.com/y27dwbmq
Melakkha, island-dwellers, lapidaries
2. Shu-ilishu cylinder seal; Mari standard carried by a priest in a procession
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The Shu-ilishu cylinder seal is a clear evidence of the Meluhhan merchants trading in copper and tin. The Meluhha merchant carries melh,mr̤eka 'goat or antelope' rebus: milakkhu 'copper and the lady accompanying the Meluhhan carries a ranku 'liquid measure' rebus: ranku 'tin'; On the field is shown a crucbile:
Apparently, the Meluhhan is the person carrying the antelope on his arms. I also suggest that on the Shu-ilishu cylinder seal, a significant hieroglyph is shown. It is a crucible which may have been used by the copper-tin artisans to work with an extraordinary invention called ukku in Kannada produced in a crucible. I suggest that Kannada word ukku is the root word because of semantic association signified by cognate words: uggi, urika which mean 'burning'. Crucible steel process is vividly explained by these etyma. "Another Akkadian text records that Lu-sunzida “a man of Meluhha” paid to the servant Urur, son of AmarluKU 10 shekels of silver as a payment for a tooth broken in a clash. The name Lu-sunzida literally means “Man of the just buffalo cow,” a name that, although rendered in Sumerian, according to the authors does not make sense in the Mesopotamian cultural sphere, and must be a translation of an Indian name." (MASSIMO VIDALE Ravenna Growing in a Foreign World: For a History of the “Meluhha Villages” in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium BC Published in Melammu Symposia 4: A. Panaino and A. Piras (eds.), Schools of Oriental Studies and the Development of Modern Historiography. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Ravenna, Italy, October 13-17, 2001 (Milan: Università di Bologna & IsIao 2004), pp. 261-80. Publisher: http://www.mimesisedizioni.it/)
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1.Shu-ilishu cylinder seal 2. ![]()
This archaeometallurgical provenance study links Khetri copper mines --through Dholavira/Lothal and Persian Gulf -- with Mesopotamia. It is possible that tin from Ancient Far East (the tin-belt of the globe) was also routed through Meluhha merchants. Evidence?
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Three pure tin ingots with Indus Script inscriptions found in Haifa, Israel.
If all the signs are NOT Cypro-Minoan Syllabary, what did these four signs, together, incised on the tin ingots signify?
Thus, together, the message on the tin ingots discovered in the Haifa shipwreck is: ranku dhatu mũh 'tin mineral ingot'.
A number of hieroglyphs on cylinder seals of Ancient Near East have been explained as Meluhha rebus expessions in Indus Script cipher. What is the archaeological evidence for the presence of Meluhha speakers (of Indian sprachbund, 'language union') in Ancient Near East (ANE)?
I submit three clusters of evidences:
1. Attestation in cuneiform records of Meluhha artisans/merchants and their settlements in ANE;
2. Shu-ilishu cylinder seal which shows him in an Akkadian inscription to be a translator of Meluhha; Mari priest hoisting an Indus Script standard of one-horned young bull in a procesion; and
3. Archaeometallurgical research which has proved the provenance of Meluhha copper in ANE.
Map of Meluhha and Southwest Asia (inset Bahrain) (After Fig. 1 Eric Olijdam, 2008, A possible Central Asian origin for the seal-impressed jar from the Temple Tower' at Failaka), in:Eric Olijdam & RH Spoor, eds, Intercultural relations between South and Southwest Asia, Studiesin Commemoration of ECL During Caspers (1934-1996), BAR Intrnational Series 1826 (2008): 268-287).
Failaka, Persian Gulf, Indus Script Hypertext seal impressions on storage jars from 'Temple Tower' signify armour, metal equipment, weapons https://tinyurl.com/ybzbtpnu
Notes: 1. See:
Tracing Meluhha in Rigveda and Cuneiform texts of Ancient Near East https://tinyurl.com/y27dwbmq
Melakkha, island-dwellers, lapidaries
According to the great epic, Mlecchas lived on islands: “sa sarvān mleccha nṛpatin sāgara dvīpa vāsinah, aram āhāryàm àsa ratnāni vividhāni ca, andana aguru vastrāṇi maṇi muktam anuttamam, kāñcanam rajatam vajram vidrumam ca mahādhanam: (Bhima) arranged for all the mleccha kings, who dwell on the ocean islands, to bring varieties of gems, sandalwood, aloe, garments, and incomparable jewels and pearls, gold, silver, diamonds, and extremely valuable coral… great wealth.” (MBh. 2.27.25-27). The reference to gems, pearls and corals evokes the semi-precious and precious stones, such as carnelian and agate, of Gujarat traded with Mesopotamian civilization. According to Sumerian records from the Agade Period (Sargon, 2373-2247 BC), Sumerian merchants traded with people from (at least) three named foreign places: Dilmun (now identified as the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf); Magan (a port on the coastline between the head of the Persian Gulf and the mouth of the Sindhu river); and Meluhha. Mentions of trade with Meluhha become frequent in Ur III period (2168-2062 BCE) and Larsa dynasty (2062- 1770 BCE). To the end of the Sarasvati Civilization period, the trade declines dramatically attesting to Meluhha being the Sarasvati Civilization. By Ur III Period, Meluhhan workers residing in Sumeria had Sumerian names, leading to a comment: ‘…three hundred years after the earliest textually documented contact between Meluhha and Mesopotamia, the references to a distinctly foreign commercial people have been replaced by an ethnic component of Ur III society’ This is an economic presence of Meluhhan traders maintaining their own village for a considerable span of time.(Parpola, Simo, Asko Parpola, and Robert H. Brunswig, Jr., 1977, “TheMeluhha Village — Evidence of Acculturation of Harappan Traders in Late Third Millenium Mesopotamia?”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 20, Part II.)
2. Shu-ilishu cylinder seal; Mari standard carried by a priest in a procession
- http://tinyurl.com/y2uekds6
- कोंद kōnda 'young bull' rebus: कोंद kōnda 'engraver, turner' kundana 'fine gold' PLUS kōḍu'horn' rebus koḍ 'workplace' PLUS koḍiyum 'ring on neck' rebus: koḍ 'workplace' PLUS khōṇḍī खोंडी 'pannier sack' rebus: कोंद kōnda 'engraver, turner, fine gold'. Thus, the hypertext composition signifies workshop of a goldsmith, lapidary (turner, engraver). A remarkable cognate etymon signifying a young bull is seen in Telugu (Indian sprahbund, 'speech union'): kōḍe. [Tel.] n. A bullcalf.
కోడెదూడ . A young bull.కాడిమరపదగినదూడ . Plumpness, prime.తరుణము. జోడుకోడయలు a pair of bullocks.కోడె adj. Young.కోడెత్రాచు a young snake, one in its prime. "కోడెనాగముం బలుగుల రేడుతన్ని కొని పోవుతెరంగు "రామా . vi. కోడెకాడు kōḍe-kāḍu. n. A young man.పడుచువాడు . A loverవిటుడు .
On Indus Script hypertexts, three forms of bulls are signified:
1. Bos primigenius (unicorns as young bulls with one horn): khōṇḍa m A young bull, a bullcalf. rebus: kunda, 'one of कुबेर's nine treasures', kundaṇa 'fine gold'
2. Bos primigenius Indicus (zebu): पोळ [pōḷa], 'zebu, dewlap' rebus: पोळ [pōḷa], 'magnetite, ferrite ore''
3. Bos primigenius taurus (old bull or ox): ḍhangra 'bull'. Rebus: ḍhangar
'blacksmith'. barad, balad, 'ox' rebus: bharata 'metal alloy' (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin
One-horned young bull is NOT a mythical species said to be 'unicorn' but in the genre of Indian aurochs (Bos primigenius).
In front of a soldier, a Sumerian standard bearer holds a banner aloft signifying the one-horned young bull which is the signature glyph of Harappa Script (Indus writing). Detail of a victory parade, from the Ishtar temple, Mari, Syria. 2400 BCE Schist panel inlaid with mother of pearl plaques. Louvre Museum. See:
Refuting pictorial symbolism of Othmar Keel. Meanings of Indus Script hypertexts, gypsum plaster priest of Mari, steatite priest of Mohenjo-daro
This procession is called a victory parade in Asko Parpola's article. I submit that the use of culm of millet as a flagstaff is a clear hypertext in the tradition of Indus Script cipher. karba 'culm of millet' rebus: karba 'iron'.
The 'rein rings' which constitute the stand for the one--horned young bull held aloft, are read rebus: valgā, bāg-ḍora 'bridle' rebus (metath.) bagalā 'seafaring dhow'. See: Priests of Mohenjo-daro and Mari (Susa) are dhāvaḍ'iron smelters'
http://tinyurl.com/ktafaud
Indus Script Meluhha (Mleccha) speakers are evidenced on a cylinder seal & Cuneiform texts, and link to priest images of Mari (ANE) & Sarasvati Civilization https://tinyurl.com/y9v5kvf4
Shu-ilishu's Cylinder seal. Courtesy of the Department des Antiquites Orientales
Musee du Louvre, Paris. The cuneiform text reads: Shu-Ilishu
EME.BAL.ME.LUH.HA.KI (interpreter of Meluhha language).
The Shu-ilishu cylinder seal is a clear evidence of the Meluhhan merchants trading in copper and tin. The Meluhha merchant carries melh,mr̤eka 'goat or antelope' rebus: milakkhu 'copper and the lady accompanying the Meluhhan carries a ranku 'liquid measure' rebus: ranku 'tin'; On the field is shown a crucbile:
Apparently, the Meluhhan is the person carrying the antelope on his arms. I also suggest that on the Shu-ilishu cylinder seal, a significant hieroglyph is shown. It is a crucible which may have been used by the copper-tin artisans to work with an extraordinary invention called ukku in Kannada produced in a crucible. I suggest that Kannada word ukku is the root word because of semantic association signified by cognate words: uggi, urika which mean 'burning'. Crucible steel process is vividly explained by these etyma. "Another Akkadian text records that Lu-sunzida “a man of Meluhha” paid to the servant Urur, son of AmarluKU 10 shekels of silver as a payment for a tooth broken in a clash. The name Lu-sunzida literally means “Man of the just buffalo cow,” a name that, although rendered in Sumerian, according to the authors does not make sense in the Mesopotamian cultural sphere, and must be a translation of an Indian name." (MASSIMO VIDALE Ravenna Growing in a Foreign World: For a History of the “Meluhha Villages” in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium BC Published in Melammu Symposia 4: A. Panaino and A. Piras (eds.), Schools of Oriental Studies and the Development of Modern Historiography. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Ravenna, Italy, October 13-17, 2001 (Milan: Università di Bologna & IsIao 2004), pp. 261-80. Publisher: http://www.mimesisedizioni.it/)
https://www.harappa.com/sites/default/files/201402/Vidale-Indus-Mesopotamia.pdf
Detail of the Mari Ishtar temple victory parade: thestand topped by the image of unicorn wild bull (excavationno. M-458), height 7cm. (After Parrot 1935: 134, fig. 15)
3, Positing an Ancient Maritime Tin Route from Ancient Far East to Ancient Near East, based on Archaeometallurgical provenance study of tin-bronze artifacts of Mesopotamia https://tinyurl.com/yyeyfkxu
Abstract from Iranica Antiqua, 2009:
Copper from Gujarat used in Mesopotmia, 3rd millennium BCE, evidenced by lead isotope analyses of tin-bronze objects; report by Begemann F. et al.
2. Author(s): BEGEMANN, F. , SCHMITT-STRECKER, S.
Journal: Iranica Antiqua
Volume: 44 Date: 2009
Pages: 1-45
DOI: 10.2143/IA.44.0.2034374
Journal: Iranica Antiqua
Volume: 44 Date: 2009
Pages: 1-45
DOI: 10.2143/IA.44.0.2034374
This archaeometallurgical provenance study links Khetri copper mines --through Dholavira/Lothal and Persian Gulf -- with Mesopotamia. It is possible that tin from Ancient Far East (the tin-belt of the globe) was also routed through Meluhha merchants. Evidence?
Three pure tin ingots with Indus Script inscriptions found in Haifa, Israel.
My decipherment appeared in Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies.
My monograph on this conclusion has been published in Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, Vol. 1, Number 11 (2010), pp.47-74 — The Bronze Age Writing System of Sarasvati Hieroglyphics as Evidenced by Two “Rosetta Stones” By S. Kalyanaraman (Editor of JIJS: Prof. Nathan Katz)
The author Michal Artzy (opcit., p. 55) who showed these four signs on the four tin ingots to E. Masson who is the author of Cypro-Minoan Syllabary. Masson’s views are recorded in Foot Note 3: “E. Masson, who was shown all four ingots for the first time by the author, has suggested privately that the sign ‘d’ looks Cypro-Minoan, but not the otherthree signs.”
All these hieroglyphs on the three tin ingots of Haifa are read rebus in Meluhha:
Hieroglyph: ranku = liquid measure (Santali)
Hieroglyph: raṅku m. ʻa species of deerʼ Vās., rankuka id., Śrīkaṇṭh. (Samskrtam)(CDIAL 10559). raṅku m. ʻ a species of deer ʼ Vās., °uka -- m. Śrīkaṇṭh.Ku. N. rã̄go ʻ buffalo bull ʼ? -- more prob. < raṅká-<-> s.v. *rakka -- .*raṅkha -- ʻ defective ʼ see *rakka -- .RAṄG ʻ move to and fro ʼ: ráṅgati. -- Cf. √riṅg, √rikh2, √*righ.(CDIAL 10559)
Rebus: ranku ‘tin’ (Santali) raṅga3 n. ʻ tin ʼ lex. Pk. raṁga -- n. ʻ tin ʼ; P. rã̄g f., rã̄gā m.ʻpewter, tinʼ (← H.); Ku. rāṅ ʻ tin, solder ʼ, gng. rã̄k; N. rāṅ, rāṅo ʻ tin, solder ʼ, A. B. rāṅ; Or. rāṅga ʻ tin ʼ, rāṅgā ʻ solder, spelter ʼ, Bi. Mth. rã̄gā, OAw. rāṁga; H. rã̄g f., rã̄gā m. ʻ tin, pewter ʼ; Si. ran̆ga ʻ tin ʼ. (CDIAL 10562)
Hieroglyph: dāṭu = cross (Telugu)
Rebus: dhatu = mineral ore (Santali) Rebus: dhāṭnā ‘to send out, pour out, cast (metal)’ (Hindi)(CDIAL 6771).
Hieroglyph: mũh 'a face' Rebus: mũh, 'ingot' or muhã 'quantity of metal produced at one time from the furnace’ (Santali)
Indus Script hypertexts thus read: Hieroglyphs: ranku 'liquid measure' or raṅku ʻa species of deerʼ PLUS dāṭu = cross rebus: plain text: ranku 'tin' PLUS dhatu 'cast mineral' Thus, together, the plain text reads: tin mineral casting. The fourth ingot with the hieroglyph of a moulded head reads: mũh 'a face' Rebus: mũh, 'ingot' or muhã 'quantity of metal produced at one time from the furnace’ (Santali).