In News
- The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister announced a $1 million prize for experts and organisations for deciphering the scripts of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
About Indus Valley Scripts
- Brief: It is one of the world’s oldest and most mysterious writing systems, associated with the Indus Valley Civilization.
- Key Features:
- Pictographic Nature: The script consists of pictorial symbols, with over 400 distinct signs identified. Symbols include representations of humans, animals, plants, and geometric shapes.
- Writing media and methods: Found on seals, pottery, tablets, and tools. Most inscriptions are short, typically no more than 5–6 characters.
- Logo-Syllabic System: Scholars believe the script may combine logograms (symbols representing words or concepts) with syllables.
- Right-to-Left Writing: Most inscriptions appear to be written from right to left, although some evidence suggests a boustrophedon style (alternating directions).
- Non-Decipherable Nature: The lack of a Rosetta Stone-like bilingual text or extended inscriptions has hindered decipherment. The language behind the script is unknown, though many scholars hypothesize it may have been Dravidian or a proto-Dravidian language.
