I submit that there were more than 4 million Meluhha speakers ca.4th millennium BCE when the Indus Script was invented to document wealth accounting ledgers of the Tin-Bronze Revolution.
The artisans and seafaring merchants had the competence even to inscribe on tin ingots. See the 3 ingots found in a shipwreck in Haifa, Israel with Indus Script inscriptions, dated ca. 1500 BCE?. The messages read rebus: ranku 'liquid measure', ranku 'antelope' rebus: ranku 'tin ore'; dATu 'cross' rebus: dhatru 'mineral ore'; muh 'face' rebus: muh 'ingot'. Thus, together, ranku dhatu muh 'tin mineral ore ingot'.
An update will appear in JIJS 17 (2019) as a communication. The original article appeared in Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies (JIJS), Vol. 1, Number 11 (2010) — The Bronze Age Writing System of Sarasvati Hieroglyphics as Evidenced by Two “Rosetta Stones” By S. Kalyanaraman These articles show three tin ingots found in a shipwreck in Haifa (ca. 1500 BCE?) with Indus Script inscriptions. The readings of the inscriptions contain 3 hieroglyphs which are read rebus in Meluhha (Ancient Indian speech form): 1. ranku ‘liquid measure’, ranku ‘antelope’ rebus: ranku ‘tin ore’; 2. hieroglyph: X cross:dATu ‘cross’ rebus: dhatu ‘mineral ore’; 3. muh ‘face’ rebus; muh ‘ingot’. Thus, the threehieroglyphs on each tin ingot reads ranku dhatu muh ‘tin mineral ore ingot’.
Three tin ingots found in a shipwreck in Haifa and dated to ca. 1500 BCE?
1. Archaeological evidence for presence of Meluhha speakers (Indian sprachbund, 'language union') in Ancient Near East.
https://tinyurl.com/y26gb4td
2. Underlying language of Indus Script is Proto-Indo-European (Meluhha). Ancient Far Eastern origin (Meluhha) posited for most of the tin used in southern Mesopotamia: Daniel T. Potts (1967).
https://tinyurl.com/yxhxo2rb
3. Positing an Ancient Maritime Tin Route from Ancient Far East to Ancient Near East, based on Archaeometallurgical provenance study of tin-bronze artifacts of Mesopotamia https://tinyurl.com/yyeyfkxu
In item 3, the remarkable finding by Begemann, F. et al (2009), has been reported that: based on lead isotope evidence the urudu-luh-ha (refined copper metal) used in Mesopotamia for tin alloying is from India, which is also contracted with an import via Dilmun. This finding, has to be read in the context of Daniel T. Potts view cited in item 2, positing that most of the tin used in southern Mesopotamia came from the Ancient Far East (from Thailand through Meluhha).
Shu-ilishu's Cylinder seal. Courtesy Department des Antiquities Orientales, Musee du Louvre, Paris. The cuneiform text reads:
Shu-Ilishu EME.BAL.ME.LUH.HA.KI
(interpreter of Meluhha language).
The Shu-ilishu cylinder seal (dated ca. 2000 BCE) is a clear evidence of the Meluhhan merchants trading in copper and tin, signified by the field symbols vividly portrayed on the cylinder seal. The Meluhha merchant carries melh, mr̤eka 'goat or antelope' rebus: milakkhu 'copper' and the lady accompanying the Meluhhan carries a ranku 'liquid measure' rebus: ranku 'tin'; On the field is shown a crucbile: kuṭhāru 'crucible' rebus: kuṭhāru 'armourer'.
Thus, the cylinder seal signifies a trade transaction between a Mesopotamian armourer (Akkadian speaker) and Meluhhans settling a trade contract for their copper and tin. The transaction is mediated by Shu-ilishu, the Akkadian interpreter of Meluhha language.
Largest tin belt of the globe is in Ancient Far East. Sarasvati civilization artisans and seafaring merchants had mediated the transport of this tin as ingots to ANE.Largest tin belt of the globe is in Ancient Far East (US Geological Survey)
Begemann, Friedrich & SCHMITT-STRECKER, S. (2009). Über das frühe Kupfer Mesopotamiens. Iranica Antiqua. 44. 1-45. 10.2143/IA.44.0.2034374. A lead isotope study »On the Early copper of Mesopotamia« reports on copper-base artefacts ranging in age from the 4 th millennium BC (Uruk period) to the Akkadian at the end of the 3 rd millennium BC. Arguments are presented that, in the (tin)bronzes, the lead associated with the tin used for alloying did not contribute to the total in any detectable way. Hence, the lead isotopy traces the copper and cannot address the problem of the provenance of tin. The data suggest as possible source region of the copper a variety of ore occurrences in Anatolia, Iran, Oman, Palestine and, rather unexpectedly (by us), from India. During the earliest period the isotopic signature of ores from Central and North Anatolia is dominant; during the next millennium this region loses its importance and is hardly present any more at all. Instead, southeast Anatolia, central Iran, Oman, Feinan-Timna in the rift valley between Dead Sea and Red Sea, and sources in the Caucasus are now potential suppliers of the copper. Generally, an unambiguous assignment of an artefact to any of the ores is not possible because the isotopic fingerprints of ore occurrences are not unique. In our suite of samples bronze objects become important during ED III (middle of the 3 rd millennium BC) but they never make up more than 50% of the total. They are distinguished in their lead isotopy by very high 206 Pb-normalized abundance ratios. As source of such copper we suggest Gujarat/ Southern Rajasthan which, on general grounds, has been proposed before to have been the most important supplier of copper in Ancient India. We propose this Indian copper to have been arsenic-poor and to be the urudu-luh-ha variety which is one of the two sorts of purified copper mentioned in contemporaneous written texts from Mesopotamia to have been in circulation there concurrently.
Conclusion
It is likely that most of the copper and tin which powered the Tin-Bronze revolution in Ancient Near East occurred through the resources of copper and tin routed through Ancient Meluhha (Indus Valley Civilization) merchants – in particular, seafaring Meluhha merchants and their tradingagents operating in the sites on the Persian Gulf.