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Section A. Ancient Economic History of Hindu Rāṣṭram on Sarasvati-Sindhu River Basins

Ancient India was the Super Power from 8th millennium BCE, contributing upto 60% of Global GDP till 1 CE, and upto 27 % of Global GDP in 1700 CE. See the bar chart of Angus Maddison's presentation on Economic History of the World. 

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Multi-disciplinary knowledge systems on Ancient Indian History posit this economic reality of the civilizational glory of Ancient India in 1 Common Era.

Indus Script evidence elucidates on how ancient India became a Super Power contributing significantly to the Tin-Bronze Revolution contributing to increase in global GDP from 5th millennium BCE. 

Over 8000 inscriptions of the Indus Script are wealth-accounting ledgers of metal-work and lapidary-work involving gems and jewels.

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Mesopotamian EDI cuneiform texts from Ur distinguish between copper (urudu/eru) and tin=bronze (zabar/siparru). ED II/III texts from Fara (Limet 1960) mention metallic tin (AN.NA/annakum). Texts from Palace G at Ebla refer to the mixing of various ratios of 'washed' copper (a-gar(-gar)/abaru) and tin to produce bronze (Waetzoldt and Bachmann 1984; Archi 1993). The recipes are also found in the late 19th century BCE texs from Mari (Muhly 1985:282). Typical copper-tin ratios are from 6:1 to 10:1.

Two collections of cuneiform texts from Kultepe and from Mari dating to 19th and early 18th centuries BCE have references to tin trade. "These texts document a trade in which tin was moving exclusively from east to west. Arriving in Mesopotamia from the east, metallic tin was transhipped up the Euphrates to Mari, or overland to Assur. From Assur the tin (in addition to Babylonian textiles) was transported via donkey caravan to various Assyrian trading colonies such as Kanesh/Kultepe in Anatolia, where it was traded for silver and gold (Larsen 1976, 1987). From Mari, the tin was traded further west to sides in Syria and Palestine (Dossin 1970; Malamat 1971), and perhaps as far as Crete (Malamat 1971:38; Muhly 1985:282)." (p.179)

Section C. Hypothesis of an eastern source for tin; epic tale of Enmerkar and Lord of Aratta

"One text from the reign of Gudea of Lagash mentions that, in addition to lapis lazuli and carnelian, tin was  also traded to Mesopotamia from the land of Meluhha. The relevant passage (Cylinder B, column XIV, lines 10-13) states that 'Gudea, the Governor of Lagash, bestowed as gifts copper, tin, blocks of lapis lazuli, [a precious metal] and bright carnelian from Meluhha. (Wilson 1996; see also Muhly 1973: 306-307). This is the only specific cuneiform reference to the trade of tin from Meluhha...'A pre-Sargonic text from Lagash published by B. Foster (1997) and described as 'a Sumerian merchant's account of the Dilmun trade' mentions obtaining from Dilmun 27.5 minas (ca. 14 kg) of an-na zabar. This phrase can be literally translated as 'tin bronze', and Foster suggested the possible reading 'tin (in/for?) bronze'...The fact that the isotopic characteristics of the Aegean tin-bronzes are so similar to those from the Gulf analyzed in this study adds further weight to the hypothesis of an eastern source for these early alloys...The possibility of tin coming from these eastern sources is supported by the occurrence of many tin deposits in modern-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, although evidence for tin extraction is currently limited to the central Asian sites of Karnab and Mushiston, and goes only as far back as the second millennium BCE...Yener has argued cogently against a 'on-source-for-all' model of the third millennium tin trade, and does not regard the proposed tin mining and processing in the Taurus Mountains as inconsistent with the importation of large amounts of tin into Anatolia. Taurus in production is thought to have co-existed with large-scale exchange of foreign metal in the third millennium, before the eventual 'devastation' of Anatolian tin mining operations by the availability of 'purer, already packaged, readily-available tin' from the Old Assyrian trade (Yener 2000:75)...IN particular, for regions such as Baluchistan, the Indus Valley, and the Gulf, which show significant third millennium tin-bronze use, the exclusive use of tin or tin-bronze from Afghanistan and central Asia seems highly likely. Textual sources are scarce, but highlight the trade through the Gulf linking Mesopotamia with Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun as the most common source of tin in the latter third millennium BCE, after an earlier overland Iranian tin-lapis-carnelian trade hinted at by the epic tale of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. " (pp.180-181)

Muhly, JD, 1973, Copper and tin. Transactions, The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 43: 155-535. 

Muhly, J.D. (1985), "Sources of tin and the beginnings of bronze metallurgy", Journal of American Archaeology, 89 (2), pp. 275–291

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-and-tracking-tin-road-after-all.html

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“Almost all the third millennium BCE cuneiform texts from southern Mesopotamia which mention specific toponyms as copper sources speak of copper from either Magan or Dilmun (T. F. Potts 1994:Table 4.1). Meluhha, the third polity of the Lower Sea, is mentioned only rarely as a copper supplier, and then for amounts of only a few kilograms (Leemans 1960:161). The common association of Meluhha with the supply of carnelian, lapis lazuli, gold, precious woods, and especially ivory, suggests that the toponym is to be

related to the region between the Makran coast and  Gujarat, encompassing sites of the Indus civilization (Heimpel 1993).” (p.15)

“Mesopotamia, as has often been stated, lacked resources. Its lack of metal ores required this world, at times, independent city-states and, at other times, empire, to look to distant lands in order to procure its metal/ores. Mesopotamian technology, however, was not a form of administrative or scribal concern. When it came to metal technology written texts offer limited information and are all but silent on the training, organization, and recruitment of metal smiths. Similarly, the texts are vague, or more typically silent, as to the geographical provenience from whence they obtained their metal/ore, its quantity, quality, price, or techniques of fabrication. It is left to the archaeologist and the recovered metal artifacts, workshops, associated tools, and mines, to address these questions...Decades ago VG Childe placed metallurgy on the top of his list of important crafts. He maintained that the development of early civilizations was a consequence of the invention of metallurgy (Childe 1930). Bronze-working, he believed, encouraged the manufacture of tools, which in turn led to more productive agriculture, and the growth of cities. Seventy-five years ago, Childe (1930:39) could point out that ‘Other documents from Mesopotamia, also written in the wedge-like characters called cuneiform, refer to the importation of copper from the mountainous region east of the Tigris and of metal and stones from Magan (probably Oman on the Persian Gulf)”…(Lloyd Weeks) introduces us to a new corpus of metal artifacts from the United Arab Emirates. Surprisingly, a significant percentage of these metals, recovered from the site of Tell Abraq, are tin-bronzes…his volume offers an up-to-date review of the enduring ‘tin-problem’ within the context of the greater Near East. Again, Childe (1928: 157) confronted the problem: ‘The Sumerians drew supplies of copper from Oman, from the Iranian Plateau, and even from Anatolia, but the source of their tin remains unknown’…(Lloyd Weeks) states ‘…the absolute source of the metal (tin-bronze) is likely to have been far to the north and east of Afghanistan or central Asia’. The central Asian source has been given reality by the recent discovery in Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan of Bronze Age settlements and mines involved in tin production (Parzinger and Boroffka 2003).” (From CC Lamberg-Karlovsky’s Foreword in: Weeks, Lloyd R., 2003, Early metallurgy of the Persian Gulf –Technology, trade and the bronze age world, Brill Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. vii-viii).

See full text: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4BAzCi4O_l4aWVMWVFHY25oMGs/edit?usp=sharing Early metallurgy of the Persian Gulf

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Map showing the location of known tin deposits exploited during ancient times

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করতোয়া নদী is Sadānīra of Brahmaputra river mentioned in ancient texts, suggesting Brahmaputra as a navigable waterway linking with Sarasvati River across Rakhigarhi

Amara Kośa asserts Sadānīra to be synonym of Karatoya River. See: सदानीरा स्त्री सदा नीरं पेयमस्याः । करतोयानद्याम् अमरः । “अथादौ कर्कटे देवी त्र्यहं गङ्गा रजस्वला । सर्वा रक्तवहा नद्यः करतोयाम्बुवाहिनी” स्मृत्युक्तेः 

तन्नदीजलस्य सदापेयत्वात् तस्यास्तथात्वम् । Source: https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/वाचस्पत्यम्

Karatoya Mahatmya refers to the sacredness of this river. Rivers Kosi and Mahananda joined the Karatoya and "formed a sort of ethnic boundary between people living south of it and the Kochs and Kiratas living north of the river." (Majumdar, Dr. R.C., History of Ancient Bengal, First published 1971, Reprint 2005, p. 4, Tulshi Prakashani, Kolkata.) 
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Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa provides a detailed account of the movement of people (Videgha Māthava, Gotama Rahugaṇa) from River Sarasvati to River  Sadānīra. The location of this river is central to the history of Pre-Mauryan era Bhāratam Janam (RV 3.53.12). The region of these people has been identified in this monograph and relates to the ironwork of the Bronze Age Sarasvati Civilization. It is possible that both Brahmautra and Ganga river systems were waterways which provided for maritime transport of tin ore from the Himalayan riverbasins (Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong) which contain the richest and largest tin belt of the globe (as the rivers ground down graniterocks to create the cassiterite -- tin ore -- deposit accumulations as placer deposits). Sources of tin were critical to unleash the Tin-Bronze Industrial Revolution of ca. 4th millennium BCE.

Importance of Rakhigarhi on the water-divide linking Ganga-Yamuna-Brahmaputra waterways with Sarasvati River system

The addition of tin to copper to create bronze alloy was a revolution. The tin-bronze replaed arsenical bronze (copper + arsenic) which was a natural source and in short supply.

This Tin-Bronze Revolution is matched by the revolution of a writing system called Indus Script to document ancient India's contributions to metalwork.

Section D. Rakhigarhi on the Ancient Maritime Tin Route through linked navigable Himalayan waterways from Ancient Far East to Ancient Near East

I suggest proclamation and constitution of two multi-disciplinary project teams involving archaeology, history, language studies, geochemistry, and geology for researches on: 1. Largest tin belt of the globe in AFE and role of seafaring merchants and artisans of India during the Tin-Bronze Revolution; 2. significance of Rakhigarhi as the link between Ancient Far East and Ancient Near East through navigable Himalayan riverine waterways and maritime trade through Indian Ocean Rim.

I suggest that the remarkable work done by Deccan College Archaeology team in the excavations of Rakhigarhi should be expanded further by making the Deccan College a nodel networking agency for the following research missions for two multi-disciplinary projects involving archaeology, history, language studies, geochemistry, and geology:

1. To establish the sources of Tin ores for the Tin-Bronze revolution in Ancient Far East and the role played by ancient Indian seafaring merchants and artisans in reaching the tin ore resource into all parts of Eurasia; and 

2. To establish the significance of Himalayan riverwaterys (Mekong, Irrawaddy, Salween, Brahmaputra (karatoya), Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Sindhu) and links to the Indian Ocean Maritime routes (through Persian Gulf and Malacca straits) to enhance the importance of an Ancient Maritime Tin Route which linked Hanoi (Vietnam) and Haifa (Israel) through ancient India.

There is a distinct indication that the Ancient Maritime Tin Route mediated by Ancient India pre-dated the Silk road by two millennia, authenticated by Indus Script evidence on tin ingots of Haifa and on Dong Son/Karen Bronze drums of AFE.

The location of Rakhigarhi as the capital pattaṇa (riverine port) of Sarasvati Civilization is central to these missions, because Rakhigarhi is location on the ridge of the Aravalli range which constitues the water-divide between 1. west-flowing rivers of Sarasvati (Drishadvati, Chautan), Ghaggar and Sindhu and 2. east-flowing rivers of Yamuna-Ganga-Brahmaputra proximate to other Himalayan river systems of Mekong, Irrawaddy and Salween in Ancient Far East (AFE). These riverine waterways make Rakhigarhi the nodal site which managed resources of tin ores from AFE; copper/zinc ores of Khetri mineral-belt; iron ore resources of Ganga-Brahmaputra basins and progressed archaeometallurgical advances to proclaim a true Metals Age, complementing the domestication of rice, cereals, cotton cultivation and sericulture to make ancient India the richest nation on the globe contributing to 33% of Global GDP by 1 Common Era (pace Angus Madsison)..

These two missions call for a networking of multidisciplinary teams to unravel the ancient knowledge systems related to navigation along waterways and the Indian Ocean and metallurgical innovations in alloying and metal casting (cire perdue etc.) techniques.

Evaluating this Herodotus text to determine the sources of tin in Athens, James D. Muhly notes: "...it is nonetheless unlikely that we shall ever have exact knowledge about the sources of the tin being used to supply Minoan Crete or Mycenaean Greece...Of greater relevance is the revival of the concept of metallogenic provinces and the formation of metallic belts --copper belts, lead-zinc belts and tin-tungsten belts -- extending over wide areas, as part of the on-going research on plate tectonics and theories of continental drift. What this means for the archaeologist is that mineral deposition is unlikely to have taken place in random, isolated deposits and that theories positing the existence of such deposits are to be regarded with great skepticism. Most important of all is the absolute geological principle that tin is to be found only in association with granite rock. The concentration of tin varies within any single granite formation and among different formations, depending upon local conditions and geological heritage, but without granite there is no possibility of tin ever having been present. Therefore, large areas of the world are automatically ruled out as possible sources of tin. The island of Cyprus is one of these areas; since there is no granite there, it never could have contained deposits of tin...Tin is commonly present in association with pegmatites of quartz and feldspar. Like gold, the tin is found within veins of quartz running through the granite rock. The difference is that while gold occurs as a native metal, tin appears in the form of an oxide (SnO2) known as cassiterite. This cassiterite, again like gold, was frequently exposed and freed from its host through weathering and degradation of the quartz and granite. This degradation was often the result of action by water, the cassiterite (and gold) thus taking the form of small lumps or nuggets present in the stream bed. Although carried along by the force of the current, the cassiterite (and gold), having a specific gravity because of its density, tends to sink and concentrate in the bed of the streams. In general, concentration increases with proximity to the original deposit of the tin...This stream or alluvial tin was thus to be found in the form of small black nuggets of cassiterite known as tin-stone. Recovery involved the panning of the gravel in the stream bed, separating out the cassiterite from the worthless sand and gravel. The process was similar to that which must have also been used to recover gold, and what was done in antiquity was probably not that different from the techniques -- and even the equipment -- used by the Forty-Niners in the great Gold Rush in California and Alaska during the mid-nineteenth century. While gold was recovered as a native metal, the tin was to be found in the form of an oxide that had to be smelted together with charcoal in order to free the oxygen and reduce the oxide to metallic tin...Words for tin...are known in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Egyptian and Ugaritic, although not in Mycenaean Greek...Sumerian AN.NA, Akkadian annaku mean tin and all Assyriologists are in agreement on this point...Mesopotamian texts...describe the addition of AN.NA/annaku to URUDU/eru in order to produce ZABAR/siparruor, in other words, of tin to copper in order to make bronze...twenty-sixth century BCE...Tin appears in the Royal Cemetery, as at Ebla, together with gold and lapis lazuli. All three materials are to be found in Afghanistan, and it is quite possible that they did all come to Mesopotamia (and to northern Syria) via an orland route across Iran...There is as yet, no hard evidence that Sumerian tin came from Afghanistan, but such a source has long been suggested on the basis of textual and archaeological evidence-- a sugestion that up to now could only be regarded as but an interesting hypothesis because of the lack of geological evidence for the existence of tin deposits in Afghanistan...east-west movement of tin is documented in the numerous Old Assyrian texts from Kultepe, the ancient karum Kanish. Again from unspecified sources to the east, the tin was brought to Assur and from there shipped overland by donkey caravan to various Assyrian merchant colonies in Anatolia...(Afghanistan's) deposits of gold and lapis lazuli, both materials highly prized by the Sumerians during the third millennium BCE, may have led ancient prospectors to tin, which was also then exported to Sumer. It is even possible that, via Mari and Ugarit, Afghan tin was carried to Middle Minoan Crete, the land of Kaptaru..." (Muhly, James D., Sources of tin and the beginnings of bronze metallurgy, in: American Journal of Archaeology, 89 (1985), pp. 277-283, 290).

·  Serge Cleuziou and Thierry Berthoud made a convincing case in May 1982 for identifying the sources of tin in the Near East. Their search extended upto Afghanistan and 'the land of Meluhha'.

" In the later 4th and early 3rd millennia, greater tin values occur-5.3% in a pin from Susa B; and 5% in an axe from Mundigak III, in Afghanistan; but these are still exceptional in a period char­acterized by the use of arsenical copper. It is only around 2700 B.C., during Early Dynastic III in Mesopotamia, that both the number of bronze artifacts and their general tin content increase significantly. Eight metal artifacts of forty-eight in the celebrated “vase a la cachette” of Susa D are bronzes; four of them—three vases and one axe—have over 7% tin. The analyses of objects from the Royal Cemetery at Ur present an even clearer picture: of twenty-four artifacts in the Iraq Museum subjected to analysis, eight containing significant quantities of tin and five with over 8% tin can be considered true bronzes in the tradi­tional sense...We know that the tin came from the east, but from where? Mentions in ancient texts are rare, and only one of them, dating to the time of Gudea of Lagash (2150-2111 B.C.], speaks of the tin of Meluhha. Meluhha is one of the lands east of Meso­potamia, along with Dilmun (Bahrain) and Makkan (the peninsula of Oman). Its loca­tion is still controversial, but most scholars tend to place it in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The lists of goods imported to Mesopotamia from Meluhha point to the Indus Valley and the Harappan civilization, but it is not always easy to make a distinction between those which originated in Meluhha and those which passed through Meluhha...A long-distance trade in tin is of course hypothetical...If we now turn to the “land of Meluhha,” or at least to the vast area of which parts have been identified with Meluhha, the use of tin is attested already in the late 4th or early 3rd millennium at Mundigak III in southern Afghanistan. Tin appears only in small quanities in artifacts from Shahr-i Sokhta in eastern Iran and at Tepe Yahya in southern Iran (among the sites from which artifacts were studied). In the Indus Valley, the copper-tin alloy is known at Mohenjo-Daro...Among the products attributed to Meluhha, lapis lazuli and carnelian are found in sites and tombs of the 3rd millennium. We can sug­gest with reasonable certainty that the tin used in Oman was in transit through Meluhha and that the most likely source was western Afghanistan...The collective indications are that western Afghanistan was the zone able to provide the tin used in Southwest Asia in the 4th and 3rd millennia. The occurrence of tin with copper ores and the signs of earl; exploitation make it obligatory for us to consider the problem of tin in direct con­nection with the metallurgy of copper in this region. Since our original research design was to define copper sources, the information on tin deposits was looked upon only as a complement. In order to elucidate the questions raised by our findings, a project aimed specifically at tin—its sources and metallurgy—should be organized." (Expedition, Volume 25 Issue 1 October 1982).

http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/early-tin-in-the-near-east/  Early Tin in the Near East -- A Reassessment in the Light of New Evidence from Western Afghanistan By: Serge Cleuziou and Thierry Berthoud 

The largest tin belt of the globe is Southeast Asia. Tin-bronze revolution of ca. 5th millennium BCE can be explained by postulating a Tin Route which linked Hanoi to Haifa, more magnificent than and rivaling the later-day Silk Road. This Tin Route of yore was traversed by Bharatam Janam.

Source: http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1301/report.pdf Stanniferous ores are the key to tin-bronze revolution of 5th millennium BCE, creating the Tin Route more magnificent and stunning than the later-day Silk Road. 

"Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12% tin and often with the addition of other metals (such as aluminium,
manganese, nickel or zinc) and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time; everywhere it gradually spread across regions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze

"The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copperand alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BCE. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Copper ageserving as a transition. Although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic from outside the region...Bronze was independently discovered in the Maykop culture of the North Caucasus as early as the mid-4th millennium BC, which makes them the producers of the oldest known bronze. However, the Maykop culture only had arsenical bronze. Other regions developed bronze and its associated technology at different periods." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age

"The land between the Euphrates and Tigris is sedimentary and therefore devoid of metals...Some semi-precious stones came from an even greater distance, cornelian from the Indian subcontinent, and lapis lazuli from Central Asia...The regions furthest to the East about which the ancient Mesopotamians had some knowledge appear to be the Indus valley (Meluhha) and Turkmenistan (Shimashki). The legendary country Aratta figures in several Sumerian epics as the distant adversary of Uruk. One can find references to the alleged trade between Uruk and Aratta in the secondary literature...Of great importance are the remains of the cargo discovered in two Late Bronze Age shipwrecks off the South coast of Turkey. The wreck near Cape Gelidonya (late 13th c. BCE) is thought to have come from Phoenicia. Its cargo consisted mainly of copper, tin, and bronze: copper in the shape of 34 oxhides (averaging 25 kg each)) and a number of bun ingots (averaging 3 kg each), tin ingots, and scrap bronze tools. Beter preserved is the shipwreck of Uluburun (late 14th c.) with a cargo of an estimated 20 tons of weight, including 354 copper oxhide ingots (1bout 10 tons), 121 copper bun ingots (about 1 ton), 110 tin ingot fragmens (about 1 ton), and 175 glass ingots (about 300 kg.)...The copper used in Syria and Mesopotamia came from different sources according to the textual evidence. One route led via the southern city of Ur, which possessed a harbour giving access to the Persian Gulf and beyond. The copper obtained from Tilmun from ca. 21st-18th c. BCE came from Oman, where impressive remains of ancient copper workings have been identified dating to this period...Tin is alloyed with copper to obtain bronze. It is first attested in a pin from Tepe Gawra Level VIII (ca. 3000 BCE), with a content of 5.6% tin. At the time of  the royal tombs of Ur (Early Dynastic IIIa. ca. 2700 BCE), bronze appears to be the most commonly used...Weeks contrasted the very limited presence of tin-bronzes in third millennium context in sites of the Iranian Plateau to the significant use of tin-bronze in Baluchistan, the Indus Valley, the Persian Gulf and south-western Iran during the same period. Since the use of tin will have been greatest along the trade route by which it was transported, he convincingly argues that this tin came via the Indian peninsula from one or more Central Asian sources. This is the famous trade with distant Meluhha, which started in the third millennium with the growing importance of the Indus civilisation, and lasted until its decline in about 1900 BCE. The supply of tin by sea route is suggested in a passage in one of the texts of Gudea (Cyl. B xiv 13): 'Along with copper, tin, slabs of lapis lazuli, shining metal (and) spotless Meluhha cornelian' (RIME 3/1,96). After the collapse of Meluhha, tin apparently was traded by an overland route cross Iran. It probably was via this overland route that the tin reached Susa in western Iran from where it was distributed westwards as is documented for the Old Babylonian period. One important route in Mesopotamia ran East of he Tigris to Assur in the North, from where Assyrian traders transported large quantities of tin to Anatolia (documented for the 19th-18th c.). The fact that they exported tin to Anatolia corroborates the view that workable deposits did not exist there...The latest reference to this city (Assur) as a source of tin is contained in an Old Babylonian letter found at the Middle Euphrates site of Haradum, which dates to the reign of Ammi-shaduqa (1683-1626 BCE). The passage reads: 'I entrusted 1 talent 20 minas of tin (= 40kg) to Hushunu, the Ahlami soldier, a guard of the kārum of Haradu, (in) Assur and I had him carry it to Haradum'...King Zimrilim's merchants were allowed to purchase tin and lapis lazuli in Susa. Zimrilim used the tin as diplomatic gifts to rulers in Ugarit, Hazor and other places in the Levant. The gifts made by Zimrilim and earlier by his predecessor Yasmah-Addu (to the king of Apishal) seem to be the only attested cases of tin moving to West Syria by way of Mari...The Uluburn shipwreck discovered off the Turkish coast had a cargo of almost 1,000 kg of tin and (Cypriot) copper, and apparently was heading for a western destination when it sank...tin figures among the tribute, which Neo-Assyrian kings received in North Syria and in the region around Diyarbakir. For example, king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE) received tribute from Patina (near modern Antakya), which included 600 kg of silver, 30 kg of gold, 3000 kg of iron, and 3000 kg of tin (RI-MA 2, 217 f.)...end of the Neo-Assyrian period (reign of Sin-shar-ishkun, ending 612 BCE), where tin (bdl) is mentioned as payment for a horse or a gift to the god hadad of Gozan. Less than a century later, Transeuphratene was the area where Babylonian merchants from Neo-Babylonian Uruk obtained tin for the Eanna temple according to several texts...Old Assyrian trade (20th-18th c. BCE)...linked the city of Assur with Central Anatolia...(trade) profited from the development of an institutional and legal framework to acommodate trade from about 2000 BCE onwards, in which groups of merchants from a particular town forged long-term relationships with other towns and their rulers through the kārum-system (kārum 'quay, harbour, commercial district). Non-Assyrian caravans brought tons of tin, cornelian and iron to Assur, where local merchants purchased these goods. By means of donkey caravans the goods were shipped to Anatolia and sold there for silver and gold. Kanesh was the main hub of a network of some twenty Assyrian commercial settlements in or close to economically important cities or regions in Anatolia. To facilitate this trade, Assur concluded treaties with local rulers that permitted it to establish trade colonies in existing cities of economic or logistical importance. A string of settlements also existed on the main caravan route from Assur to Anatolia in northern Iraq and Syria...The amount of tin and textiles sent by individual merchants to Anatolia differed considerably. A simple donkey load consisted of some 65 kg of tin, plus some textiles. One particular letter (Kt ck 443) announces the coming to Anatolia of a large convoy consisting of 21 donkeys, carrying 300 kg of tin and 400 assorted textiles. This represented significant load. The shipwreck of Uluburn, however, had a cargo of an estimated 10 tons of copper and 1 ton of tin. The ton of tin equals some 15 donkey-loads. Small as such an amount may seem, it is almost the total estimated yield of one of the mines discovered in Tajikistan. The shipment of textiles and tin to Anatolia was an Assyrian monopoly. There were no traders from Babylon active in Kanesh, but we know that merchants from North Syria (Ebla, Hashshum) were also involved in trade with Anatolia...Obviously, not only Mesopotamian merchants went abroad. Foreign merchants also travelled to Mesopotamia to sell goods. A royal inscription of the Old Akkadian King Sargon (2300) contains a unique hint at the extent of long-distance trade, when he claims that he 'moored the ships of Meluhha, Magan, and Tilmun at the quay of Agade' (RIME 2, 28). The tin and textiles that Assyrian merchants exported to Anatolia reached Assur by means of caravans from Babylonia, and, presumably, Susa...The coastal kingdom of Ugarit was a centre from where copper, tin, alum or lapis lazuli could be sent on to Carchemish and Hatti...Two letters addressed to the king of Ugarit by Tagubli, his representative with the court of Carchemish, deal with the sending of genuine lapis lazuli as a gift to the Hittite king. Urtenu appears as a manager of the palace storage facilities and stables, able to issue horses and donkeys, as well as copper, tin, alum, blue-purple wool, and textiles."

(Jan Gerrit Dercksen, Mineral resources and demand in the Ancient Near East, in: La Natura Nel Vicino Oriente Antico, Atti del Convegno internationale, Milano, 2009, Edizioni Ares, pp. 43-75)

o    See: Tin isotope fingerprints of ore deposits and ancient bronze October 2017. The Aravalli Range, is one of the oldest fold mountain rangein the world; it is an eroded stub of ancient mountains, is the oldest range of fold mountains in India.(Roy, A. B. (1990). "Abstract. The sources and origin of tin, and the dispersion of bronze technology in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC, are the central research topics of our multi-disciplinary research project, funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC). It has the general goal to establish the tin isotopic composition of tin ores and tin-bearing artefacts, and considers the infl uence of anthropogenic processes on the isotope ratios. We discuss the tin isotopic composition of cassiterite from two major tin provinces in Europe: from Cornwall and Devon (Southern England), and from the Erzgebirge (Germany and Czech Republic). The samples from both tin provinces show a very large variation of isotopic compositions with δ124/120Sn-values ranging overall from -0.28 to 0.85‰. Although there is large overlap, on average, cassiterite from the Erzgebirge (δ124/120Sn = 0.09‰) is isotopically lighter than that of southwest England (δ124/120Sn = 0.18‰). This is due to a higher proportion of heavy isotope compositions in the samples from Cornwall and Devon. In addition, we compare the ore data with preliminary tin isotopic systematics in Early Bronze Age metal artefacts from the Únětice Culture in Central Germany and from several ancient settlements in Mesopotamia belonging to the Early Dynastic III and the Akkadian Periods. Bronze artefacts of the Únětice Culture containing more than 3 wt.% tin have rather constant isotopic compositions (δ124/120Sn = 0.2 to 0.31 ‰), despite having highly variable trace element concentrations and tin contents. This suggests the intentional addition of an isotopically homogeneous tin raw material (metal or cassiterite) to the copper ore or melt. In contrast, the tin isotopic composition of artefacts from Mesopotamia (>3 wt. % Sn) show a much larger δ124/120Sn variation from -0.2 to +0.4‰. This is even observed in single settlements such as Ur. Since there is no sizeable tin mineralization in the vicinity, this implies that the tin demand of the ancient metallurgist was covered by trading tin from different ore "

o     

o    Evolution of the Precambrian crust of the Aravalli Range. Developments in Precambrian Geology, 8, 327-347.) The range rose in a Precambrian event called the Aravalli-Delhi Orogen... In ancient times, Aravalli were extremely high but since have worn down almost completely by millions of years of weathering, where as the Himalayas being young fold mountains are still continuously rising. 

Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pЄ, or Cryptozoic spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago (Ga) to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago (Ma). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precambrian

Aravalli range is the principal water divide between the Indus-Sarasvati basins in the north-west and Ganga-Yamuna-Brahmaputra basins in the east, covering extensive areas of the plains of north India.

The Aravalli Range is a range of mountains running approximately 692 km (430 mi) in a southwest direction, starting in North India from Delhi and passing through southern Haryana, through to Western India across the states of Rajasthan and ending in Gujarat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aravalli_Range

Section E. Indus Script hieroglyphs on Karen Bronze Drum of Ancient Far East

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Clik here to view.Salavo bronze drums. Hieroglyphs: frog, peacock, elephant, palm tree.

tALa 'palm' rebus: dhALa 'large ingot'.

maraka 'peacock' (Santali. Mu.) Rebus: मारक loha 'a kind of calcining metal' (Samskritam)

Skt. mūkaka- id. (DEDR 5023) Rebus: mū̃h ‘ingot’.  Muha. The quantity of iron produced at one time in a native smelting furnace. (Santali) karibha 'trunk of elaphant' ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba 'iron' ib 'iron'. Hieroglyph: arka 'sun' Rebus: arka, eraka 'copper, gold, moltencast'. miṇḍāl ‘markhor’ 

(Tōrwālī) meḍho a ram, a sheep (Gujarati)(CDIAL 10120) 

 Rebus: mẽṛhẽt, meḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.Ho.)

maṇḍa (Sanskrit) OMarw. mīḍako m. ʻ frog ʼ, mīṁḍakī f. ʻ small frog ʼ, 

G. me_ḍak, meḍ°m., me_ḍkī, meḍ° f.; M. mẽḍūk -- mukh n. ʻ frog -- like face ʼ. 1. Pa. maṇḍūka -- m., °kī -- f. ʻ frog ʼ, Pk. maṁḍū˘ka -- , °ḍūa -- , °ḍuga -- m., (CDIAL 9746) Rebus: mẽṛhẽt, meḍ ‘iron’ 

(Mu.Ho.)

kaṅká m. ʻ heron ʼ VS. [← Drav. T. Burrow TPS 1945, 87; onomat. Mayrhofer EWA i 137. Drav. influence certain in o of M. and Si.: Tam. Kan. Mal. kokku ʻ crane ʼ, Tu. korṅgu, Tel. koṅga, Kuvi koṅgi, Kui kohko] Pa. kaṅka -- m. ʻ heron ʼ, Pk. kaṁka -- m., S. kaṅgu m. ʻ crane, heron ʼ (→ Bal. kang); B. kã̄k ʻ heron ʼ, Or. kāṅka; G. kã̄kṛũ n. ʻ a partic. ravenous bird ʼ; -- with o from Drav.: M. kõkā m. ʻ heron ʼ; Si. kokā, pl. kokku ʻ various kinds of crane or heron ʼ, kekī ʻ female crane ʼ, kēki ʻ a species of crane, the paddy bird ʼ (ē?).(CDIAL 2595) Ta. kokku common crane, Grus cinerea; stork, paddy bird; kuruku heron, stork, crane, bird, gallinaceous fowl, aṉṟil bird. Ma. kokku, kokkan, kocca, kuriyan paddy bird, heron; kuru heron. To.košk heron. 
Ka. kokku, kokkare crane; kukku heron, crane. Tu. korṅgu crane, stork. Te. koṅga, kokkera, kokkarāyi crane; pegguru, begguru (< peru-kuru) adjutant crane. Kol. (Kin.) koŋga crane.  Pa.kokkal (pl. kokkacil) id. Ga. (S) kokkāle 
(pl. kokkāsil) heron; (S.2) koŋalin (pl. koŋasil), (S.3) kokalin crane. Go. (L.) koruku id. (Voc. 921); (Mu.) kokoḍal heron, duck (Voc. 870); (Ma. Ko.) koŋga crane (Voc. 874). Kui kohko paddy bird. Kuwi (S.) kongi  (Ṭ.) kokoṛa crane. Br. xāxūr 
demoiselle crane. / Cf. Skt. kaṅka- heron; Turner, CDIAL, no. 2595.(DEDR 2125) కొంగ (p. 0313) [ koṅga ] konga. [Tel.] n. A bird of the heron or stork kind. బకము (Telugu) Rebus: kang 'brazier' (Kashmiri)

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Clik here to view.Ox-hide type copper and tin ingots carried on boats. Shown on three sided molded tablet. One side shows a flat bottomed boat with a central hut that has leafy fronds and two birds on the deck and a large double rudder. Discovered in Mohenjo-daro in 1931.

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2. Michal Artzy, 1983, Arethusa of the Tin ingot, in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 250 (Spring, 1983), pp. 51-55.

Hieroglyph: ranku 'liquid measure' 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)

Source: 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) 

http://www.indojudaic.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=8 

Section F. Advances in metallurgy during the Tin-Bronze Revolution from 5th m BCE

Meluhha Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

Various sculptures, seals, bronze vessels pottery, gold jewellery, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite have been found at excavation sites.(McIntosh, Jane (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 248.) 

A number of gold, terracotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of some dance form. These terracotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. Many crafts including, "shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead making" were practised and the pieces were used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments from all phases of Harappan culture. Some of these crafts are still practised in the subcontinent today.(Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1997). "Trade and Technology of the Indus Valley: New Insights from Harappa, Pakistan". World Archaeology. 29 (2: "High–Definition Archaeology: Threads Through the Past"): 262–280). Terracotta female figurines were found (c. 2800–2600 BCE) which had red colour applied to the "manga" (line of partition of the hair).(Lal, B.B. (2002). The Sarasvati flows on, p.82)

A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India). (Bisht, R.S. (1982). "Excavations at Banawali: 1974–77". In Possehl Gregory L. (ed.). Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. pp. 113–124.)

During the Early Harappan period (about 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments, etc. document intensive caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.(Parpola, Asko (19 May 2005). "Study of the Indus Script" (PDF); 50th ICES Tokyo Session, pp.2-3). 

There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilisations as early as the middle Harappan Phase, with much commerce being handled by "middlemen merchants from Dilmun" (modern Bahrain and Failaka located in the Persian Gulf). (Neyland, R.S. (1992). "The seagoing vessels on Dilmun seals". In Keith, D.H.; Carrell T.L. (eds.). Underwater archaeology proceedings of the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference at Kingston, Jamaica 1992. Tucson, AZ: Society for Historical Archaeology. pp. 68–74.)

"It is generally assumed that most trade between the Indus Valley (ancient Meluhha?) and western neighbors proceeded up the Persian Gulf rather than overland. Although there is no incontrovertible proof that this was indeed the case, the distribution of Indus-type artifacts on the Oman peninsula, on Bahrain and in southern Mesopotamia makes it plausible that a series of maritime stages linked the Indus Valley and the Gulf region."(Daniel T. Potts (2009), Maritime Trade: Pre-Islamic Period iranicaonline.org) In the 1980s, important archaeological discoveries were made at Ras al-Jinz (Oman), demonstrating maritime Indus Valley connections with the Arabian Peninsula. (Maurizio Tosi, "Black Boats of Magan. Some Thoughts on Bronze Age Water Transport in Oman and beyond from the Impressed Bitumen Slabs of Ra's al-Junayz", in A. Parpola (ed), South Asian Archaeology 1993, Helsinki, 1995, pp. 745–761 (in collaboration with Serge Cleuziou).

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(During-Caspers, GS Elisabeth; Reade, Julian E. (2008). The Indus-Mesopotamia relationship reconsidered. Archaeopress. pp. 12–14).

The areas of origination of the raw materials for the objects found in the royal cemeteries of Ur. http://tinyurl.com/y29xfrx4 

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Aratta

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Dilmun

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Meluḫḫa

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Ḫaḫḫum

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'Su-land'

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(H)arallu

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(Mar)daman

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Keban

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Marhashi

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Elam

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Azerbaijan

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Miyana-Zanjan Region

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Kerman

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Taurus Mountains

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Mt. Bikni

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Mt. Dapara

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Badakhshan

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Elburz Moutains

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Central Plateau

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Bushire

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Indus Valley

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According to ECL DUring Caspers, “the Indus Valley 'unicorn' is a watered-down version, often recopied, of the commonly portrayed one-horned bovine of the late Protoliterate c-d and Early Dynastic times in Mesopotamia…”(E. C. L. During Caspers, “The Indus Valley 'Unicorn' A Near Eastern Connection?” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 34:2, 1991, p. 312—350.)

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The Standard of Ur. Frame: wood; mosaic: shell, red limestone, lapis lazuli and bitumen, Sumerian artwork, ca. 2600-2400 BCE. From tomb 779 Ur.

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Gold Cup. Mesopotamian artwork, ca. 2600-2400 BCE. From the “Queen's tomb” (that of Puabi) in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Southern Iraq.

Silver vessels found in the tomb of queen Puabi in Ur

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The expression "Country of Me-lu-ha" (Me-luh-ha Ki) on Akkadian inscriptions. ("The Indus Civilization and Dilmun, the Sumerian Paradise Land". www.penn.museum.)

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Sculpture of a Mesopotamian boat, 2700-2600 BCE.

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Carved chlorite vessel with opposing animals. Northern Afghanistan, c. 2700-2500 BCE; Height: 6.5 cm. LACMA

[quote] During the period of the Early Dynastic III royal cemetery (ca. 2600 BC), Ur was importing elite goods from geographically distant places. These objects include precious metals such as gold and silver, and semi-precious stones, namely lapis lazuli and carnelian. These objects are all the more impressive considering the distance from which they traveled to reach Mesopotamia and Ur specifically.

Mesopotamia is very well suited to agricultural production for both plants and animals but is lacking in metals, minerals and stones. These materials were traded by both land and water, although bulk transportation is only possible by water as it is cheaper and faster. River transportation greatly aided Mesopotamian crafts from very early in the fourth millennium. The Euphrates provided access to Syria and Anatolia as well as the Gulf, and many trading posts were set up along the river...Most of the gold known from archaeological contexts in ancient Mesopotamia is concentrated at the royal cemetery at Ur (and later in the Neo-Assyrian graves at Nimrod). Textual evidence indicates that gold was reserved for prestige and religious functions. It was gathered in royal treasuries, temples and used for adornment of elite peoples as well as funerary offerings (such as the graves at Ur). Gold is used for personal ornaments, weapons and tools, sheet-metal cylinder seals, vessels such as fluted bowls, goblets and imitation cockle shells, and as additions to sculpture. The textual evidence for the sources of gold used in Mesopotamia is irregular. The Sumerian texts name Aratta as a source while the Gudea records mention both the mountain of Ḫaḫḫum, near Samsat in modern Turkey, and Meluḫḫa. Other texts refer to a perhaps mythical place known as (Ḫ)arallu, supposedly located in the hinterland of Iran, as a source of gold. Other possible sources are named by Shu-Sin, such as 'Su-land', most likely in western Iran, and (Mar)daman in south-eastern Turkey. Texts referring to Dilmun mention that gold is traveling to Ur up the Gulf, perhaps originating in Meluḫḫa... The 'Silver Mountains' mentioned in association with the campaigns of Sargon of Akkad are identified as the mines found at Keban on the Upper Euphrates. Other, more generic, silver-producing areas are Aratta, Dilmun, Elam, Marḫashi (also known as Barhashi or Parahshum) and Meluḫḫa...Lapis Lazuli is the best known and well-documented gemstone at Ur and in Mesopotamia in general. In the royal cemetery lapis lazuli is found as jewelry, plaques and amulets, and as inlays in gaming boards, musical instruments, and ostrich-egg vessels as well as parts of larger sculptural groups such as the "Ram in a Thicket" and as the beard of a bull attached to a lyre. Some of the larger objects include a spouted cup, a dagger-hilt, and a whetstone... There is no textual evidence which provides a clear reference to the source of Sumerian lapis lazuli although documents list Aratta, Dilmun, and Meluḫḫa in Iran. These also name mountains such as Mt. Dapara, Mt. Bikni (modern Kuh-i Alvand in western Iran) and Bahtar Mountain or Sogdia. It is almost universally acknowledged that the lapis lazuli from Mesopotamia originated in the upper reaches of the Kokcha River in the Badakhshandistrict of modern Afghanistan.This was certainly exploited at the time of the Royal Cemetery (ca. 2600 BC) with evidence of manufacture in the 3rd millennium at Shortugai (I) on the Oxus River...The stone was possibly first taken to Meluḫḫa and then traded (along with carnelian) by ship up the Gulf. There is no textual reference to a land route but several probably existed through the Zagros Mountains...Carnelian is a variety of microcrystalline quartz that is particularly suited for fine beads and seals. This semi-precious stone is second only to lapis lazuli in terms of popularity in Mesopotamia and Ur specifically. Carnelian was most likely imported as both a raw material and as manufactured beads... Charles Leonard Woolley, the excavator at Ur, attributes the carnelian found there to the Gulf area. The Indus Valley, however, has famously been exploited for its carnelian and it is likely that some of the material originated here as well.^[5] Carnelian is also mentioned in many Sumerian texts including those to do with trade with Dilmun. In the Gudea inscriptions carnelian is reportedly from Meluḫḫa... In the 3rd millennium BCE, chlorite stone artifacts were very popular, and traded widely. These included disc beads and ornaments, as well as stone vases. These carved dark stone vessels have been found everywhere in ancient Mesopotamia. They rarely exceed 25 cm in height, and may have been filled with precious oils. They often carry human and animal motifs inlaid with semi-precious stones.

"Elaborate stone vessels carved with repeating designs, both geometric and naturalistic, in an easily recognizable “intercultural style”,were made primarily of chlorite; a number were produced at the important site of Tepe Yahyasoutheast of Kerman (Iran) in the middle and late 3rd millennium b.c.e. Some of these vessels were painted natural color (dark green) and inlaid with pastes and shell, and some have even been found with cuneiform inscriptions referring to rulers and known Sumerian deities. More than 500 vessels and vessel fragments carved in this style have been recovered from sites ranging from Uzbekistan and the Indus Valley (e.g., Mohenjo-daro) in the east to Susa and all the major Sumerian sites in Mesopotamia, including Mari, in the west and to the Persian Gulf, particularly Tarut and the Failaka Islands, in the south."[unquote] (Limet, H. (1960). Le Travail du metal au pays de Sumer au temps de la IIIe dynastie d'Ur. Paris; Pettinato, G. (1972) "Il commerlio con l'estero della Mesopotamia...all luce delle fonti letterarie e lessicale sumeriche". Mesopotamia 7. 43-166; Wyart, J. et al. (1981). "Lapis Lazuli from Sar-e-Sang, Badakhshan, Afghanistan", Gems and Gemology. 184-190; Arkell, A.J. (1936). "Cambay and the Bead Trade". Antiquity 10. 292-305; loc.cit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imports_to_Ur

"Sesame oil was probably imported from the Indus River region into Sumer: the Sumerian word for this oil is illu (Akkadian: ellu). One theory is that the word is of proto-Dravidianorigin: in Dravidian languages of South India, el or ellu stands for sesame. An alternative, proposed by Michael Witzel, is that it derived from a "para-Munda" language spoken in the Indus Valley Civilization. ..There is extensive presence of Harappan seals and cubical weight measures in Mesopotamian urban sites. Specific items of high volume trade are timber and specialty wood such as ebony, for which large ships were used. Luxury items also appear, such as lapis lazuli mined at a Harappan colony at Shortugai (modern Badakhshan in northern Afghanistan), which was transported to Lothal, a port city in Gujarat in western India, and shipped from there to Oman, Bahrain and Sumer.In the 1980s, important archaeological discoveries have been made at Ras al-Jinz (Oman), located at the easternmost point of the Arabian Peninsula, demonstrating maritime Indus Valley connections with Oman, and the Middle East in general...There is sufficient archaeological evidence for the trade between Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent. Impressions of clay seals from the Indus Valley city of Harappa were evidently used to seal bundles of merchandise, as clay seal impressions with cord or sack marks on the reverse side testify. A number of these Indian seals have been found at Ur and other Mesopotamian sites...The Persian-Gulf style of circular stamped rather than rolled seals, also known from Dilmun, that appear at Lothal in Gujarat, India, and Failaka Island (Kuwait), as well as in Mesopotamia, are convincing corroboration of the long-distance sea trade network, which G.L. Possehl has called a "Middle Asian Interaction Sphere"...What the commerce consisted of is less sure: timber and precious woods, ivory, lapis lazuli, gold, and luxury goods such as carnelian and glazed stone beads, pearls from the Persian Gulf, and shell and bone inlays, were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia in exchange for silver, tin, woolen textiles, perhaps oil and grains and other foods. Copper ingots, certainly, bitumen, which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia, may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and chickens, major products of the Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia—all these have been instanced.(McIntosh, Jane (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives., p. 354; Maurizio Tosi: Die Indus-Zivilisation jenseits des indischen Subkontinents, in: Vergessene Städte am Indus, Mainz am Rhein 1987, pp. 132-133; Possehl, G.L. (2007), “The Middle Asian Interaction Sphere”, Expedition 49/1; loc.cit. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meluhha).

Section G. Indus Script decipherment

Epigraphia Indus Script is presented in 3 volumes with indicated Meluhha rebus readings for the inscriptions.

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Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics dealing with language in use and the contexts in which it is used, including such matters as deixis, the taking of turns in conversation, text organization, presupposition, and implicature. 

Animals displayed as hieroglyphs on Indus Script inscriptions are in the context of documenting wealth categories read rebus in Meluhha.

Shalamaneser III Black Obelisk is a Rosetta Stone for Indus Script,  displays animals (as tributes); these animals are documented as Meluhha wealth-categories on Indus Script inscriptions

For example, the Obelisk displays elephant as tribute from Musri to Shalamaneser III. Elephant is an Indus Script hieroglyph karibha, ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron', a Meluhha metal wealth category.

The tributes shown as specific animals, on four sides of row 3 of the obelisk are hieroglyphs of Indus Script read rebus as metalwealth or lapidary (gems, jewels) wealth categories.

Musri is an area of Kurds many of whom practice Hindu traditions even today. 

The locality Musri refers to a region in Kurdistan. The tradition of Yazidi, kurds (from the region of Musri) is a continuum of Hindu traditional practices of women wearing sindhu, red vermilion tilak on their foreheads following the tradition shown on terracotta toys from Nausharo,Mehrgarh with red sindhur at the parting of their hair.

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Terracotta toys from Nausharo (c. 3rd m. BCE), depicting red sindhur (vermilion) at the maang, 'parting of the hair', a traditional signifier that the person is a married woman.

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Yazidi women (Kurds) wearing tilak on their foreheads.

Evidence of Meluhha Indus Script animals on Shalamaneser III Black Obelisk (858-824 BCE) and displayed by Assyrian King Ashur-bel-kala (1074-1056 BCE)

Ashur-bel-kala, king of Assyria 1074-1056 BCE is a predecessor of Shalamaneser III 858–824 BCE.  He (Ashur-bel-kala) was the son of Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, succeeded his brother Ašarēd-apil-Ekur who had briefly preceded him, and he ruled for 18 years...He had also displayed the rare animals to the people of his land. (Shigeo Yamada (2000); RIMA 2, A.0.89.7, iv 29f. The passage reads: nise matisu usebri ‘He = Ashur-bel-kala) displayed (the animals) to the public of his land.). The Construction of the Assyrian Empire: A Historical Study of the Inscriptions of Shalmanesar III Relating to His Campaigns in the West. Brill. p. 253)...These he added to his collection of rare animals which he bred and dispatched merchants to acquire more, such as “a large female ape and a crocodile (and) a ‘river man’, beasts of the Great Sea” and the dromedaries he displayed in herds.(Tomoo Ishida (1982). Studies in the period of David and Solomon and other essays. Eisenbrauns. p. 219)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur-bel-kala

Thus, the rare or exotic animals exposed to the people of Assyria are the animals shown on Shalamaneser III Black Obelisk PLUS crocodile, 'river man', beasts of the Great Sea displayed by Ashur-bel-kala. These animals -- crocodile, 'river man' (i.e. fish anthropomorph), Sea beasts (fish, fish-fin symbols on Indus Script) are also Indus Script hieroglyphs.In Meluhha rebus rendering, crocodile signifies: kāru a wild crocodile rebus:
khār'blacksmith'.

The 'river man' may signify an anthropomorph fish. ayo 'fish' rebus: ayas 'alloy metal'.ayaskara 'metalsmith' -- anthropomorth fish PLUS fish-fin khambhaṛā ʻfinʼ rebus: kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint. కమ్మటము (p. 0247) [ kammaṭamu ] Same as కమటము. కమ్మటీడు
kammaṭīḍu. [Tel.] A man of the goldsmith caste. He wears a bracelet with a safflower hieroglyph. करडी [ karaḍī ] f (See करडई) Safflower  Rebus: करड [ karaḍa ] 'hard alloy'.

The Obelisk displays on four sides of Row 3 of the Obelisk, four sets of animals on four sides. The associated cuneiform inscription describes the animals as tributes from Musri for Shalamaneser III. 

The land of Musri is in Kurdistan with perhaps Meluhha settlements. This conjecture is premised on the ground that there are people in Kurdistan called Yazidis who practice Hindu traditions even today and whose ancestors were perhaps Meluhha speakers.

The animals displayed are categories of wealth (metalwork, gems, jewels) on Indus Script incriptions.

The processions of animals displayed on each of the four sides of Row 3 of the Black Obelisk of Shalamaneser III are the tributes the King of Assyria receives. 

The animals shown such as water buffalo, unicorn, antelope, monkeys, elephant are Indus Script hieroglyphs which occur as pictorial motifs on Indus Script inscriptions. In Indus Script Cipher, these hieroglyphs of animals are read rebus in Meluhha and constitute wealth categories.

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Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III in the British Museum, the White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I just behind
Material	black limestone
Size	c. 1.98 metres high, 45 cm wide
Writing	Assyrian
Created	858–824 BCE
Discovered	Nimrud, Iraq
Present location	British Museum, London
Registration	ME 118885

In particular, the third row from the top of the Black Obelisk relates to four narratives presented on four sculptural friezes related to exotic or rare tributes from Musri (according to the cuneiform inscription). 

The four narratives on sculptural friezes of the Black Obelisk are as followson Side A,B,C,D:

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karibha 'camels' rebus: karba, 'iron'

ranga 'buffalo' rebus: ranga 'pewter'

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sakea is a composite animal hypertext in Indus Script: khara 'onager' PLUS khoṇḍa 'young bull' PLUS mer̥ha 'crumpled (horn)' rebus: kār kunda 'blackmith, turner, goldsmith'کار کنده kār-kunda 'manager, director, adroit, clever, experienced' (Pashto) medhā 'yajna, dhanam' med 'iron' med 'copper' (Slavic) The composite animal is deciphered as  kār kunda singin PLUS singi 'horn' rebus: singi 'gold for use in ornaments' (by) 'blacksmith, turner, goldsmith.'

Hieroglyph: shrang श्रंग् । शृङ्गम्, प्रधानभूतः m. a horn Rebus: shrang श्रंग्  the head man or leading person in a village or the like.(Kashmiri)

susu is antelope: ranku 'antelope' rebus: ranku 'tin'

karibha, ibha, 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron'

bazitu/uqupu is monkey/ape: kuṭhāru कुठारु monkey; rebus: kuṭhāru, कुठारु an armourer

रत्नी  ratnī 'female monkey dressed as woman' Indus Script hieroglyphs rebus kuṭhāru 'monkey' rebus: 'armourer' Rebus: ratna 'gifts'; रत्निन् 'possessing or receiving gifts'.

Semantics and pragmatics:

Water-buffalo: Hieroglyph:  rã̄go 'water-buffalo' rebus: Pk. raṅga 'tin' P. rã̄g f., rã̄gā m. ʻ pewter, tin ʼ Ku. rāṅ ʻ tin, solder ʼOr. rāṅga ʻ tin ʼ, rāṅgā ʻ solder, spelter ʼ, Bi. Mth. rã̄gā, OAw. rāṁga; H. rã̄g f., rã̄gā m. ʻ tin, pewter ʼraṅgaada -- m. ʻ borax ʼ lex.Kho. (Lor.) ruṅ ʻ saline ground with white efflorescence, salt in earth ʼ  *raṅgapattra ʻ tinfoil ʼ. [raṅga -- 3, páttra -- ]B. rāṅ(g)tā ʻ tinsel, copper -- foil ʼ.(CDIAL 10562) ranga 'alloy of copper, zinc, tin'.

River ox: Hieroglyph, short-horned bull: barad, balad, 'ox' rebus: bharata 'metal alloy' (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin). 

Elephant, camel: Hieroglyphs: karibha, ibha 'elephant' karabhá m. ʻ camel ʼ MBh., ʻ young camel ʼ Pañcat., ʻ young elephant ʼ BhP. 2. kalabhá -- ʻ young elephant or camel ʼ Pañcat. [Poss. a non -- aryan kar -- ʻ elephant ʼ also in karḗṇu -- , karin -- EWA i 165] 1. Pk. karabha -- m., ˚bhī -- f., karaha -- m. ʻ camel ʼ, S. karahu, ˚ho m., P. H. karhā m., Marw. karhau JRAS 1937, 116, OG. karahu m., OM. karahā m.; Si. karaba ʻ young elephant or camel ʼ.2. Pa. kalabha -- m. ʻ young elephant ʼ, Pk. kalabha -- m., ˚bhiā -- f., kalaha -- m.; Ku. kalṛo ʻ young calf ʼ; Or. kālhuṛi ʻ young bullock, heifer ʼ; Si. kalam̆bayā ʻ young elephant ʼ Rebus: karba, ib 'iron'Addenda: karabhá -- : OMarw. karaha ʻ camel ʼ.

Monkeys: hieroglyphs:  kuṭhāru कुठारु monkey; rebus: kuṭhāru, कुठारु an armourer.

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This is the figure of रत्नी  ratnī a monkey dressed as woman Rebus: रत्निन् 'possessing or receiving gifts'; m. pl. N. of certain persons in whose dwelling the रत्न-हविस् (q.v.) is offered by a king (viz. the ब्राह्मण , राजन्य , महिषी , 

परिवृक्ती , सेना-नी , सूत , ग्राम-णी , क्षत्तृ , संग्रहीतृ , भाग-दुघ , and अक्षावाप) TBr. S3Br. ( °नि-त्व n. TBr. ) (RV).रत्न n. ( √1. रा) a gift , present , goods , wealth , riches RV. AV. 

S3Br.; a jewel , gem , treasure , precious stone (the nine jewel are pearl , ruby , topaz , diamond , emerald , lapis lazuli , coral , sapphire , गोमेद ; hence रत्न is a N. for the number 9 ; but accord. to some 14) Mn. MBh. &c; रत्न--हविस् n. a partic. oblation in the राजसूय (having reference to persons who may be reckoned among a king's most valuable treasures) Ka1tyS3r. (cf. रत्न्/इन्).

Thus, the tributes received by Shalamaneser III are iron implements, metal armour, lapidary metalwork wealth from Meluhha. The unicorn signifies Hieroglyph: khoṇḍa 'young bull'  Rebus: kunda 'treasure of Kubera', kundaṉa 'fine gold' PLUS singi 'horn' rebus: singi 'gold for use in ornaments' (by) kār kunda 'blackmith, turner, goldsmith'کار کنده kār-kunda 'manager, director, adroit, clever, experienced' (Pashto)

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Clik here to view.The रत्नी  ratnī 'female monkey dressed as a woman' is held on a leash of a chain. 

Hieroglyph: chain: śr̥ṅkhala m.n. ʻ chain ʼ MārkP., ˚lā -- f. VarBr̥S., śr̥ṅkhalaka -- m. ʻ chain ʼ MW., ʻ chained camel ʼ Pāṇ. [Similar ending in mḗkhalā -- ]Pa. saṅkhalā -- , ˚likā -- f. ʻ chain ʼ; Pk. saṁkala -- m.n., ˚lā -- , ˚lī -- , ˚liā -- , saṁkhalā -- , siṁkh˚, siṁkalā -- f. ʻ chain ʼ, siṁkhala -- n. ʻ anklet ʼ; Sh. šăṅāli̯ f., (Lor.) š*lṅāli, šiṅ˚ ʻ chain ʼ (lw .with š -- < śr̥ -- ), K. hö̃kal f.; S. saṅgharu m. ʻ bell round animal's neck ʼ, ˚ra f. ʻ chain, necklace ʼ, saṅghāra f. ʻ chain, string of beads ʼ, saṅghirī f. ʻ necklace with double row of beads ʼ; L. saṅglī f. ʻ flock of bustard ʼ, awāṇ. saṅgul ʻ chain ʼ; P. saṅgal m. ʻ chain ʼ, ludh. suṅgal m.; WPah.bhal. śaṅgul m. ʻ chain with which a soothsayer strikes himself ʼ, śaṅgli f. ʻ chain ʼ, śiṅkhal f. ʻ railing round a cow -- stall ʼ, (Joshi) śã̄gaḷ ʻ door -- chain ʼ, jaun. śã̄gal, śã̄gaḍ ʻ chain ʼ; Ku. sã̄glo ʻ doorchain ʼ, gng. śāṅaw ʻ chain ʼ; N. sāṅlo ʻ chain ʼ, ˚li ʻ small do. ʼ, A. xikali, OB. siṅkala, B. sikal, sikli, chikal, chikli, (Chittagong) hĩol ODBL 454, Or. sāṅk(h)uḷā, ˚ḷi, sāṅkoḷi, sikaḷā̆, ˚ḷi, sikuḷā, ˚ḷi; Bi. sīkaṛ ʻ chains for pulling harrow ʼ, Mth. sī˜kaṛ; Bhoj. sī˜kar, sĩkarī ʻ chain ʼ, OH. sāṁkaḍa, sīkaḍa m., H. sã̄kal, sã̄kar, ˚krī, saṅkal, ˚klī,sikal, sīkar, ˚krī f.; OG. sāṁkalu n., G. sã̄kaḷ, ˚kḷī f. ʻ chain ʼ, sã̄kḷũ n. ʻ wristlet ʼ; M. sã̄k(h)aḷ, sāk(h)aḷ, sã̄k(h)ḷī f. ʻ chain ʼ, Ko. sāṁkaḷ;Si. säkilla, hä˚, ä˚ (st. ˚ili -- ) ʻelephant chainʼ. śr̥ṅkhalayati. 

Addenda: śr̥ṅkhala -- : WPah.kṭg. (kc.) śáṅgəḷ f. (obl. -- i) ʻ chain ʼ, J. śã̄gaḷ f., Garh. sã̄gaḷ. śr̥ṅkhalayati ʻ enchains ʼ Daś. [śr̥ṅkhala -- ]Ku.gng. śāṅaī ʻ intertwining of legs in wrestling ʼ (< śr̥ṅkhalita -- ); Or. sāṅkuḷibā ʻ to enchain ʼ.(CDIAL 12580, 12581) வீரசங்கிலி vīra-caṅkili, n. < vīra +. 1. Gold chain worn as an armlet, as a sign of heroism; வீரத்திற்கு அறிகுறியாகக் கையிலணியும் பொன்னணி. வீரசங்கிலி கேயூரம்(பிரபுலிங். பிர. 9). 2. A woman's necklace; மகளிர் கழுத்தணி வகை. (சிலப். 6, 99, உரை.)vīra-c-caṅkili வீரச்சங்கிலி vīra-c-caṅkili, n. < வீரம்¹ +. See வீரசங்கிலி. (சிலப். 6, 99, அரும்.) *இலாடம்¹ ilāṭam, n. < lāṭa. Name of a country, prob. modern Gujarat; பரதகண்டத்தில் ஒரு தேசம். *இலாடம்² ilāṭam, n. < radha. Name of a country, a portion of modern Bengal; வங்காள தேசப் பகுதி. (Insc.) லாடம்² lāṭam, n. < Rāḍha. A country.   rāḍhā f. ʻ district in West Bengal ʼ Kathās., ˚ḍha -- m. ʻ belonging to this district ʼ lex. [MIA. < rāṣṭrá -- ??] Pk. rāḍhā -- f. ʻ name of a district ʼ, B. rāṛ(h), Or. rāṛha, H. rāṛh m.rāḍhīya ʻ belonging to Rāḍhā ʼ Prab.com. [rāḍhā -- ]N. rāṛi ʻ blanket ʼ; B. rāṛi ʻ belonging to Rāṛh ʼ; Or. rāṛhi ʻ native of West Bengal, a class of fisherman ʼ; H. rāṛhī ʻ coming from Rāṛh ʼ.(CDIAL 10698, 10690) *இலாடசங்கிலி ilāṭa-caṅkili, n. < lāṭa +. Puzzle chain carried as an aid to concentration of mind by itinerant Lāṭa mendicants; கழற்று தற்குரிய ஒருவகைப் பின்னற்சங்கிலி.

Rebus: gold chain ornament inset with diamonds, land measure: சங்கிலி¹ caṅkili, n. < šṛṅkhalaā. [M. caṅ-kala.] 1. Chain, link; தொடர். சங்கிலிபோலீர்ப்புண்டு (சேதுபு. அகத். 12). 2. Land-measuring chain, Gunter's chain 22 yards long; அளவுச் சங்கிலி. (C. G.) 3. A superficial measure of dry land=3.64 acres; ஓர் நிலவளவு. (G. Tn. D. I, 239). 4. A chain-ornament of gold, inset with diamonds; வயிரச்சங்கிலி என்னும் அணி. சங்கிலி நுண்டொடர் (சிலப். 6, 99).  saṅghāra f. ʻ chain, string of beads ʼ, saṅghirī f. ʻ necklace with double row of beads ʼ(S.)(CDIAL 12580)

Rebus: collection of materials: sangaha, sangraha, 'catalogue, list'. saṁgraha m. ʻ collection ʼ Mn., ʻ holding together ʼ MBh. [√grah] Pa. saṅgaha -- m. ʻ collection ʼ, Pk. saṁgaha -- m.; Bi. sã̄gah ʻ building materials ʼ; Mth. sã̄gah ʻ the plough and all its appurtenances ʼ, Bhoj. har -- sã̄ga; H. sãgahā ʻ collection of materials (e.g. for building) ʼ; <-> Si. san̆gaha ʻ compilation ʼ ← Pa. *saṁgrahati ʻ collects ʼ see sáṁgr̥hṇāti.(CDIAL 12852).  

Rebus: lathe: Rebus: Vajra Sanghāta 'binding together': Mixture of 8 lead, 2 bell-metal, 1 iron rust constitute adamantine glue. (Allograph) Hieroglyph: sãghāṛɔ 'lathe'.(Gujarati)

Thus the hieroglyph chain signifies rebus: sãghāṛɔ, sã̄gah signify lathe and collection of (lapidary) materials.

Section H. Ivory tags with Egyptian hieroglyphs have been found in Abydos compare with miniature metalwork wealth-accounting tablets of Harappa

Hieroglyphs displayed on such tags seem to signify products and places from which the materials were obtained. This suggests that Indus Script Cipher is also signification of wealth-categories as a logo-semantic, logo-pragmetic writing system and NOT a syllabic script.

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Clik here to view.These tags are comparable-- in size and form -- to the miniature tablets of Indus Script from Harappa.

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Harappa 1995-7: MoundE, HARP Trench 11: steatite seal and incised steatite tablets (After Fig. 4. Harappa 1995-1997: Mounds E and ET; Trench 11: steatite seal H96-2796/6874-01 and incised steatite tablets (22) with the same inscriptions). "The last 2 signs of this seal are the same as those on one side of the 22 tablets (taking three strokes as a single sign)...Each tablet is three-sided with the inscription on each side comprising a single more complex sign accompanied by three or four simple strokes." The tablets are "incised with script that was to be read directly from the tablet." (Note by J. Mark Kenoyer & Richard H. meadow on Inscribed objects from Harappa excavations: 1986-2007 in: Asko Parpola, BM ande and Petteri Koskikallio eds., 2010, CISI, Vol.3: New material, untraced objects, and collections outside India and Pakistan, Part 1: Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, (pp.xliv to lviii), p. xliv http://www.harappa.com/indus/Kenoyer-Meadow-2010-HARP.pdf) 

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Clik here to view.Ivory tags of Abydos are of size range from about 1 to 9 cm in breadth and 1,5 - 3 mm in thickness.

A tag from the pre-dynastic period (after O’Connor, D. 2009. Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris. London: Thames & Hudson. p.145). 

Archeologist G. Dreyer reads these two hieroglyphs, the elephant 3b and the triple mountain peaks dw, thus spelling the name of Abydos.  O'Connor suggests that this may represents the name of a town, which may not be Abydos.  Neither seems to address the third element, a schematic tree.  (The circle upper left is a hole). This comment is excerpted from Diwiyana's blogpost: http://indusscriptmore.blogspot.com/2012/03/indus-syntax.html "In 1988 Dreyer and his colleague Werner Kaiser excavated in Abydos (Umm el-Qaab) on the cemetery "U" the burial site of the king (U-j), which is dated to the Naquada period IIIa2, known as king Scorpion I. Currently, this is the earliest known large royal tomb of old Egypt. The most important finds were about 400 large wine jars being inscribed resp. having tags showing phonetically readable characters of a script, the first of its kind in Egypt. They identify the person laid into the grave, as the inscription says "plantation of (king) Scorpion." Script also name his successor, a king Double Falcon I. The scientific importance lies in the fact of finding Egyptian hieroglyphs which predate cuneiform script. The mentioned hierogylphs are on small wooden tags applied to the jars probably marking their origin and "are fully developed", as Dreyer stated. In 1998 Dreyer found another writing on small ivory labels, he concluded that these support the challenge to the prevailing view that the first people to write were the Sumerians of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) sometime before 3000 BCE" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/235724.stm

There is a possibility that the tags with the elephant hieroglyph may signify Indus Script hypertexts read rebus in Meluhha. If this possibiity is validated archaeologically by the presence of Indus Script writers in Abydos, the readings may signify that the products described relate to metalwork of the Bronze Age.

karba, ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron

pōlaḍu'black drongo' rebus: pōlaḍ 'steel' Alternative: karandava 'aquatic bird' rebus: karada 'hard alloy'

ḍāng 'mountain range' Rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith'. Alternative: shrang श्रंग् । शृङ्गम्, प्रधानभूतः m. a horn; the top, peak, summit of a mountain; the head man or leading person in a village or the like.(Kashmiri) sriṅg-ín horned (V., C.); m. (C.) horned animal; mountain (Skt.) Rebus: Singī & singi (f.) [cp. Sk. śṛngī] 1. gold Vin i.38; S ii.234; J i.84.(Pali) singi 'gold for use in ornaments' (Skt.) 

Hieroglyph: shrang श्रंग् । शृङ्गम्, प्रधानभूतः m. a horn Rebus: shrang श्रंग्  the head man or leading person in a village or the like.(Kashmiri)

kuṭi 'tree' rebus: kuṭhi 'smelter'

The earliest evidence of cotton use in the Indian subcontinent has been found at the site of Mehrgarh and Rakhigarhi where cotton threads have been found preserved in copper beads; these finds have been dated to the Neolithic (5th millennium BCE).Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered parts of modern eastern Pakistan and northwestern India between 3300 and 1300 BCE.(Jane McIntosh (2008) "The Ancient Indus Valley", Cotton has been cultivated in the subcontinent since the fifth millinium BCE. Based on archaeological evidence, preserved cotton fabric has been found in Harappa, Chanbu-daro in Pakistan Rakhigiri and Lothal in India. p.333; Moulherat, C.; Tengberg, M.; Haquet, J. R. M. F.; Mille, B. ̂T. (2002). "First Evidence of Cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan: Analysis of Mineralized Fibres from a Copper Bead". Journal of Archaeological Science. 29 (12): 1393–1401; Stein, Burton (1998). A History of India. Blackwell Publishing.)

Section I. Domestication of farming, cotton and silk, 7th, 6th m BCE

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First evidence of cotton in Sarasvati Sindhu civilization, is dated to 6th millennium BCE(Moulherat, C., Tengberg, M., Haquet, J.-F. & Mille, B. 2002. "First Evidence of Cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan: Analysis of Mineralized Fibres from a Copper Bead', Journal of Archaeological Science, 29 : 1393-1401.) https://tinyurl.com/y269dv8k

Silk has a long history in India. It is known as Resham in eastern and north India, and Pattu in southern parts of India. Recent archaeological discoveries in Harappa and Chanhu-daro suggest that sericulture, employing wild silk threads from native silkwormspecies, existed in South Asia during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization (now in Pakistan) dating between 2450 BCE and 2000 BCE, while "hard and fast evidence" for silk production in China dates back to around 2570 BCE. Shelagh Vainker, a silk expert at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, who sees evidence for silk production in China "significantly earlier" than 2500–2000 BCE, suggests, "people of the Indus civilization either harvested silkworm cocoons or traded with people who did, and that they knew a considerable amount about silk."(Ball, Philip (17 February 2009). "Rethinking silk's origins". Nature. 457 (7232): 945; Good, I.L.; Kenoyer, J.M.; Meadow, R.H. (2009). "New evidence for early silk in the Indus civilization" (PDF). Archaeometry. 50 (3): 457. )

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Fiber pseudomorphs preserved by copper salts on the interior of the coiled copper necklace that have been analyzed and determined to be silk from the wild silk moth, Antheraea mylitta, commonly called "Tussar" silk today. (JM Kenoyer, 2004, Ancient Textiles of the Indus Valley Region, in Tana Bana: The woven soul of Pakistan, edited by Noorjehan Bilgrami, pp. 18-31. Koel Publications, Karachi.)

Research by J. Bates et al. (2016) confirms that Indus populations were the earliest people to use complex multi-cropping strategies across both seasons, growing foods during summer (rice, millets and beans) and winter (wheat, barley and pulses), which required different watering regimes. Bates et al. (2016) also found evidence for an entirely separate domestication process of rice in ancient South Asia, based around the wild species Oryza nivara. This led to the local development of a mix of "wetland" and "dryland" agriculture of local Oryza sativa indica rice agriculture, before the truly "wetland" rice Oryza sativa japonica arrived around 2000 BCE.(Bates, Jennifer (21 November 2016). "Rice farming in India much older than thought, used as 'summer crop' by Indus civilisation"; Bates, J. (1986). "Approaching rice domestication in South Asia: New evidence from Indus settlements in northern India". Journal of Archaeological Science. 78(22): 193–201). Jarrige notes that the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated wheats and barley, while Shaffer and Liechtenstein note that the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley. Gangal agrees that "Neolithic domesticated crops in Mehrgarh include more than 90% barley," noting that "there is good evidence for the local domestication of barley." Yet, Gangal also notes that the crop also included "a small amount of wheat," which "are suggested to be of Near-Eastern origin, as the modern distribution of wild varieties of wheat is limited to Northern Levant and Southern Turkey.(Jarrige, J.-F. (1986). "Excavations at Mehrgarh-Nausharo". Pakistan Archaeology. 10 (22): 63–131; Gangal, Kavita; Sarson, Graeme R.; Shukurov, Anvar (2014). "The Near-Eastern roots of the Neolithic in South Asia". PLOS ONE. 9 (5):)

Section J. Makkan and meluhha in early Mesopotamian sources --IJ Gelb

I. J. Gelb

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Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale

Vol. 64, No. 1 (1970), pp. 1-8 (8 pages)

Published by: Presses Universitaires de France

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23294921

Makkan and Meluhha in early Mesopotamian sources (IJ Gelb, 1970)

Section K. Literary evidence about Sarasvati river in the Veda, Epics and ancient texts

See: Metaphors of Rāṣṭrī Suktam R̥gveda 10.125, signify tribute to guilds of pāñcāla, pañca jātā, 'five artisans', seafaring merchants of Sarasvati Civilization 

https://tinyurl.com/yadqjo2d

-- R̥bhu-s are founders of yajña, are metaphors of material facets of Sarasvati Civilization.
-- praṇo devī sarasvatī, triṣadasthā, 'three-sourced' saptadhātuh, 'seven ores' pañca jātā, 'five artisans' vardhayantī, 'prosperer'.

I submit that Rāṣṭrī or Devī Suktam R̥gveda 10.125 is a tribute to the five guilds of artisans of Sarasvati Civiliization.

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The divinities venerated in the Rāṣṭrī Suktam (RV 10.125), specifically identified are

Section 1. आदित्य, वरुण, मित्र, अश्विनी-कुमार
Section 2. आ-हनस्, त्वष्टृ, पूषन्, भग
Section 3. वसु, रुद्र, ऋभु

In this manvantara, O King, the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Visvedevas, the Maruts, the two Asvini-kumara brothers and the Rbhus are the demigods. Their head king [Indra] is Purandara. (Srimad Bhagavatam 8.13.4)

Old Lithuanian ašva and Sanskrit ashva mean "horse". Ašvieniai are represented as pulling a carriage of Saulė (the Sun) through the sky^] Ašvieniai, depicted as žirgeliai or little horses, are common motifs on Lithuanian rooftops,placed for protection of the house.Similar motifs can also be found on beehives, harnesses, bed frames, and other household objects. Ašvieniai are related to Lithuanian Ūsinis and Latvian Ūsiņš (cf. Vedic Ushas), gods of horses.
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Clik here to view.Ašvieniai, commonly called the little horses, on the rooftop of a house in Nida

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Clik here to view.The Sun Chariot was found by first-time ploughing on Trundholm Mose, south of Højby, in September 1902. The find dates back to the old Bronze Age, about 1400 B.C. The Sun Chariot, which is made of bronze, consists of a gold coated disc of the sun, drawn by a horse, both placed on a small six-wheeled chariot. Probably a miniature version of a larger cult chariot. The original Sun Chariot is on display at the National Museu in Copenhagen and is considered to be one of the most famous Danish national treasures.

https://www.webcitation.org/5tso8HIGS?url=http://blacktaj.homestead.com/files/documents/The_Sumerians_and_Gemini.pdf
Hamacher, Duane W. "The Sumerians and Gemini: Sumerian Astronomical Interpretations as Origins of the Divine Horse Twins and Solar Chariots in Indo-European Mythology (Unpublished manuscript)"

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Nasatya (elder ashvin) was God of Health and Darsa (younger ashvin) was God of Medicines The twins Ashwini kummaras sons of the sun god Surya. Vedic gods that represent the brightness of sunrise and sunset

The invocation of these divinities is documented in  Rāṣṭrī Suktam R̥gveda 10.125. Hence, the Rāṣṭrī Suktam R̥gveda 10.125 constitutes the centrl theme, the essence, purport and function of the R̥gveda, The divinities are manifestations of skill, artisans, seafaring merchants of Sarasvati Civilization...

The Ashvins are mentioned 376 times in the Rigveda, with 57 hymns specifically dedicated to them: 1.3, 1.22, 1.34, 1.46-47, 1.112, 1.116-120 (c.f. Vishpala), 1.157-158, 1.180-184, 2.20, 3.58, 4.43-45, 5.73-78, 6.62-63, 7.67-74, 8.5, 8.8-10, 8.22, 8.26, 8.35, 8.57, 8.73, 8.85-87, 10.24, 10.39-41, 10.143. The Nasatya twins are invoked in a treaty between Suppiluliuma and Shattiwaza, kings of the Hittites and the Mitannirespectively.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C5%A1vieniai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E5xPEsP1A4 (3:29) A rendering of RV 10.125, "Devī Suktam"

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Sāyaṇa/Wilson translation RV 10.125 

10.125.01 I proceed with the Rudras, with the Vasus, with the ādityas, and with the Viśvedevā; I support both Mitra and Varuṇa, Agni and Indra, and the two Aśvins.[Deity Pramātmā: the word, or first of creatures].

10.125.02 I support the foe-destroying Soma, Tvaṣṭā, Pūṣan and Bhaga; I bestow wealth upon the institutor of the rite offering the oblation, deserving of careful protection, pouring forth the libation.

10.125.03 I am the sovereign queen, the collectress of treasures, cognizant (of the Supreme Being), the chief of objects of worship; as such the gods have put me in many places, abiding in manifold conditions, entering into numerous (forms. 

10.125.04 He who eats food (eats) through me; he who sees, who breathes, who hears what is spoken, does so through me; those who are ignorant of me perish; hear you who have hearing, I tell that which is deserving of belief. 

10.125.05 I verily of myself declare this which is approved of by both gods and men; whomsoever I will, I render formidable, I make him a Brahmā, a r̥ṣi, or a sage. [A Brahman: Brahmā, the creator].

10.125.06 I bend the bow of Rudra, to slay the destructive enemy of the Brāhmaṇa-s, I wage war with (hostile) men. I pervade heaven and earth.

10.125.07 I bring forth the paternal (heaven) upon the brow of this (Supreme Being), my birthplace is in the midst of the waters; from thence I spread through all beings, and touch this heaven with my body. 

10.125.08 I breathe forth like the wind giving form to all created worlds; beyond the heaven, beyond this earth (am I), so vast am I in greatness.

Griffith translation RV 10.125

1. I TRAVEL with the Rudras and the Vasus, with the Adityas and AllGods- I wander.
I hold aloft both Varuna and Mitra, Indra and Agni, and the Pair of Asvins.
2 I cherish and sustain highswelling- Soma, and Tvastar I support, Pusan, and Bhaga.
I load with wealth the zealous sdcrificer who pours the juice and offers his oblation
3 I am the Queen, the gathererup- of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship.
Thus Gods have stablished me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in.
4 Through me alone all eat the food that feeds them, each man who sees, brewhes, hears the word
outspoken
They know it not, but yet they dwell beside me. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it.
5 1, verily, myself announce and utter the word that Gods and men alike shall welcome.
I make the man I love exceeding mighty, make him a sage, a Rsi, and a Brahman.
6 I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion.
I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven.
7 On the worlds' summit I bring forth the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean.
Thence I extend over all existing creatures, and touch even yonder heaven with my forehead.
8 I breathe a strong breath like the wind and tempest, the while I hold together all existence.
Beyond this wide earth and beyond the heavens I have become so mighty in my grandeur.

आ-हनस्, त्वष्टृ, पूषन्, भग

आ-हनस् obscene , lascivious , profligate RV. v , 42 , 13 ; x , 10 , 6. 8; mfn. to be beaten or pressed out (as सोम) (Monier-Williams) आहन्   āhan आहन् 2 P. 1 To strike, hit, beat; कुट्टिममाजघान K. 1; परस्य शिर आहन्ति Sk; Ś.7.17; दुर्जयान् करिणः ... आहन्यात् Kām.19.6; said to be Ātm. when the object is some limb of one's own body; आहते शिरः; but cf. आजघ्ने विषमविलोचनस्य वक्षः Ki.17.63; so आहध्वं मा रघूत्तमम्; Bk.8.15,5.12 (see Sk. on P.I.3.28 also). -2 To strike, ring, beat (as a bell, drum &c.) तुमुलकलनिनादं तूर्यमाजध्नुरन्ये Bk.1.27,17.7; Me.68; R.17.11. -3 To kill, slaughter. आहत āhata आहत p. p. 1 Struck, beaten (as a drum &c.); हदये दिग्धशरैरिवाहतः Ku.4.25,3; R.4.23,12.77. -2 Trodden; पादाहतं यदुत्थाय मूर्धानमधिरोहति Śi.2.46; गजदन्ता- हता वृक्षाः Rām. -3 Injured, killed. -4 Dispelled, des- troyed, removed. -5 Multiplied (in Math.) सूर्याब्धि- संख्यया द्वित्रिसागरैरयुताहतैः Sūrya Ś.; एकैकमब्देषु नवाहतेषु Bṛi. S.8.22. -5 Known, understood. -6 Rolled (as dice). -7 Uttered falsely. -तः A drum. -तम् 1 A new cloth or garment. -2 An old garment. -3 A nonsensical or meaningless speech, an assertion of impossibility; e. g. एष वन्ध्यासुतो याति Śubhāṣ. -Comp. -लक्षण a. = आहितलक्षण q. v. under आधा.आहतिः   āhatiḥ आहतिः f. 1 Killing. -2 A blow, hit, striking. -3 Coming (आगति). -4 Multiplication; अंशाहतिच्छेदवधेन भक्ता Līlā.आहत्य   āhatya आहत्य ind. Having struck or beaten; striking, hitting. -वचनम्, -वादः An explicit or energetic explanation.आहननम्   āhananam आहननम् 1 Striking at, beating. -2 A stick. (for beating a drum). Av.2.133.1.आहननीय   āhananīya आहननीय a. Making oneself known by beating a drum. आहनस्   āhanas आहनस् a. [आ-हन्-असुन्] 1 To be beaten or pressed out (as Soma). -2 Unchaste, wanton, profligate; य आहना दुहितुर्वक्षणासु Rv.5.42.13.(Apte)

RV 10.10. 6 Who knows that earliest day whereof thou speakest? Who hatb beheld it? Who can here declare it?Image may be NSFW.
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Great is the Law of Varuna and Mitra. What, wanton! wilt thou say to men to tempt them?

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RV 10.10.8 They stand not still, they never close their eyelids, those sentinels of Gods who wander round us.
Not mego- quickly, wanton, with another, and hasten like a chariot wheel to meet him.

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RV 5.42.13 My newest song, thought that now springs within me, I offer to the Great, the Sure Protector,

Who made for us this All, in fond love laying each varied form within his Daughters' bosom.

आ-हनस् mfn. to be beaten or pressed out (as सोम); to be skimmed (as milk) RV. The expression अहं सोममाहनसं is significant in providing a lead to the nature of the product, soma. A remarkable expression yields the early avocation of the soma presser. The expression is: ahan-gār अहन्-गार् (= ) m. a blacksmith (H. xii, 16) (Kashmiri) P آهن āhan, s.m. (9th) Iron. Sing. and Pl. آهن ګر āhan gar, s.m. (5th) A smith, a blacksmith. Pl. آهن ګران āhan-garān. آهن ربا āhan-rubā, s.f. (6th) The magnet or loadstone. (E.) Sing. and Pl.); (W.) Pl. آهن رباوي āhan-rubāwī. See اوسپنه. پنه aos-panaʿh, s.f. (3rd) Iron. Also used as an adjective to qualify another noun, signifying, Iron-like, hard. Pl. يْ ey. اوسپنخړيَ aos-panḵẖaṟṟaey, s.m. (1st) The dross of iron left after melting. Pl. يِ ī.(Pashto) The Pashto expression aos-pana is cognate of R̥gveda word ayas 'alloy metal' aya 'iron' (Gujarati) अयस् steel L. ; ([cf. Lat. aes , aer-is for as-is ; Goth. ais , Thema aisa ; Old Germ. e7r , iron ; Goth. eisarn ; Mod. Germ. Eisen.]); n. iron , metal RV. &c; an iron weapon (as an axe , &c ) RV. vi , 3 ,5 and 47 , 10; gold. The word āhan <अशन् m. (connected with √ अश्) ([only /अश्ना (instr.) and /अश्नस् , perhaps better derived from /अश्मन् q.v. , cf. Whitney's Gr. 425 e]) , stone , rock RV. x , 68 , 8; a stone for slinging , missile stone RV. ii , 30 , 4 and iv , 28 , 5; ( NBD. ) the firmament RV. i , 164 , i ; 173 , 2 ; x , 27 , 15 [in the first two of these three passages the form /अश्नस् has before been taken as nom. sg. m.fr. 1. अश्न q.v.]; अश्न m. (cf. /अशन्) , a stone RV. viii , 2 , 2. The early association of stone with a thunderbolt yields the term अशनी f. = अश्/अनि , the thunderbolt S3Br. xi (voc.) R. iii , 35 , 40.

त्वष्टृ m. a carpenter , maker of carriages (= त्/अष्टृ) AV. xii , 3 , 33; " creator of living beings " , the heavenly builder , N. of a god (called सु-क्/ऋत् , -पाण्/इ , -ग्/अभस्ति , -ज्/अनिमन् , स्व्-/अपस् , अप्/असाम् अप्/अस्तम , विश्व्/अ-रूप &c RV. ; maker of divine implements , esp. of इन्द्र's thunderbolt and teacher of the ऋभुs i , iv-vi , x Hariv. 12146 f. R. ii , 91 , 12 ; former of the bodies of men and animals , hence called " firstborn " and invoked for the sake of offspring , esp. in the आप्री hymns RV. AV. &c MBh. iv , 1178 Hariv. 587 ff. Ragh. vi , 32 ; associated with the similar deities धातृ , सवितृ , प्रजा-पति , पूषन् , and surrounded by divine females [ग्न्/आस् , जन्/अयस् , देव्/आनाम् प्/अत्नीस् ; cf. त्व्/अष्टा-व्/अरूत्री] recipients of his generative energy RV. S3Br. i Ka1tyS3r. iii ; supposed author of RV. x , 184 with the epithet गर्भ-पति RAnukr. ; father of सरण्यू [सु-रेणु Hariv. ; स्व-रेणु L. ] whose double twin-children by विवस्वत् [or वायु ? RV. viii , 26 , 21 f.] are यमयमी and the अश्विन्s x , 17 , 1 f. Nir. xii , 10 Br2ih. Hariv. 545 ff. VP. ; also father of त्रि-शिरस् or विश्वरूप ib. ; overpowered by इन्द्र who recovers the सोम [ RV. iii f. ] concealed by him because इन्द्र had killed his son विश्व-रूप TS. ii S3Br. i , v , xii ; regent of the नक्षत्र चित्रा TBr.S3a1n3khGr2. S3a1ntik. VarBr2S. iic , 4 ; of the 5th cycle of Jupiter viii , 23 ; of an eclipse iii , 6 ; त्वष्टुर् आतिथ्य N. of a सामन् A1rshBr. ); a form of the sun MBh. iii , 146 Hariv. 13143 BhP. iii , 6 , 15;name of an आदित्य MBh. i Hariv. BhP. vi , 6 , 37 VP. i , 15 , 130 ; ii , 10 , 16; name of a रुद्र , i , 15 , 122.

पूषन् m. (the अ not lengthened in the strong cases , but acc. °षाणम् , in Ma1rkP. ) N. of a Vedic deity (originally connected with the sun , and therefore the surveyor of all things , and the conductor on journeys and on the way to the next world , often associated with सोम or the Moon as protector of the universe ; he is , moreover , regarded as the keeper of flocks and herds and bringer of prosperity ; in the ब्राह्मणs he is represented as having lost his teeth and feeding on a kind of gruel , whence he is called करम्भा*द् ; in later times he is one of the 12 आदित्यs and regent of the नक्षत्र रेवती or पौष्ण ;du. " पूषन् 

and अर्यमन् " VP. Sch.)

भग m. (ifc. f(आ and ई). g. बह्व्-ादि) " dispenser " , gracious lord , patron (applied to gods , esp. to सवितृ) RV. AV.; N. of an आदित्य (bestowing wealth and presiding over love and marriage , brother of the Dawn , regent of the नक्षत्र उत्तर-फल्गुनी ; यास्क enumerates him among the divinities of the highest sphere ; according to a later legend his eyes were destroyed by रुद्र) ib. &c; the नक्षत्र उत्तर-फल्गुनी MBh. vi , 81; mn. = यत्न , प्रयत्न , कीर्ति , यशस् , वैराग्य , इच्छा , ज्ञान , मुक्ति , मोक्ष , 

धर्म , श्री L. [cf. Zd. bagha = Old Pers. baga ; Slav. bogu8 , bogatu8 ; Lith.bago4tas , na-ba4gas.]