Editing Indus script (section)

==Corpus==
[[File:Copper plates with Indus script.jpg|thumb|Indus script on copper plates]]
[[File:Indus script.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Three [[stamp seal]]s and their impressions bearing Indus script characters alongside animals: "unicorn" (left), bull (centre), and elephant (right); [[Guimet Museum]]]]
[[File:Stamp seal and modern impression- unicorn and incense burner (?) MET DP23101 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|"Unicorn" seal with Indus inscription, and a modern impression; [[Met Museum]]]]
[[File:IndusValleySeals.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Collection of seals and their impressions; [[British Museum]]]]

{{See also|Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation}}

By 1977 at least 2,906 inscribed objects with legible inscriptions had been discovered,{{sfnp|Mahadevan|1977|pp=5–7}} and by 1992 a total of {{abbr|approx.|approximately}}{{nbsp}}4,000 inscribed objects had been found.{{sfnp|Fairservis|1992|p=5}} In 2025, it was reported around 5,000 inscriptions have been excavated since 1924.
<ref>{{cite news |last=Pragati |first=K. B. |date=2025-02-01 |title=Want a Million Dollars? Get Busy Deciphering This Ancient Script. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/world/asia/india-indus-script-prize.html |url-access=subscription |work=The New York Times |access-date=2025-02-02}}</ref>

Indus script symbols have primarily been found on [[stamp seal]]s, pottery, bronze, and [[Indian copper plate inscriptions|copper plate]]s, tools, and weapons.{{sfnp|Possehl|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XVgeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 127]}} The majority of the [[textual corpus]] consists of seals, impressions of such seals, and graffiti markings inscribed on pottery.{{sfnp|Fairservis|1983}} Seals and their impressions were typically small in size and portable, with most being just 2–3 centimetres in length on each side.{{sfnp|Mukhopadhyay|2018a|p=5–6}} No extant examples of the Indus script have been found on perishable organic materials like [[papyrus]], paper, textiles, leaves, wood, or bark.{{sfnp|Possehl|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XVgeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 127]}}

===Early Harappan===
Early examples of the Indus script have been found on pottery inscriptions and clay impressions of inscribed Harappan seals dating to around {{circa|2800–2600 BCE}} during the [[Early Harappan period]],{{sfnp|Kenoyer|2006|pp=10–11}} and emerging alongside administrative objects such as seals and [[Indus Valley civilisation#Metrology|standardised weights]] during the [[Kot Diji]] phase of this period.{{sfnp|Meadow|Kenoyer|2001|p=224}} However, excavations at Harappa have demonstrated the development of some symbols from potter's marks and graffiti belonging to the earlier [[Ravi River|Ravi]] phase from {{circa|3500–2800 BCE|lk=no}}.{{sfnp|Kenoyer|2006|pp=10–11}}{{sfnp|Bryant|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2jfHlinW4UC&pg=PA178 178]}}

===Mature Harappan===
In the [[Mature Harappan period]], from about {{circa|2600–1900 BCE|lk=no}}, strings of Indus signs are commonly found on flat, rectangular [[stamp seal]]s as well as written or inscribed on a multitude of other objects including pottery, tools, tablets, and ornaments. Signs were written using a variety of methods including carving, chiselling, embossing, and painting applied to diverse materials such as [[terracotta]], [[sandstone]], [[soapstone]], bone, shell, copper, silver, and gold.{{sfnp|Meadow|Kenoyer|2010|p=xlviii}} {{As of|1977}}, Iravatham Mahadevan noted that about 90% of the Indus script seals and inscribed objects discovered so far were found at sites in [[Pakistan]] along the [[Indus River]] and its tributaries, such as [[Mohenjo-daro]] and [[Harappa]],{{efn|1540 from Mohenjodaro, 985 from Harappa, 66 from [[Chanhudaro]]}} while other sites located elsewhere account for the remaining 10%.{{efn|165 from [[Lothal]], 99 from [[Kalibangan]], 7 from [[Banawali]], 6 from [[Ur]] in Iraq, 5 from [[Surkotada]], 4 from [[Chandigarh]]}}{{sfnp|Mahadevan|1977|pp=6–7}}{{sfnp|Singh|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA169 169]}} Often, animals such as bulls, [[water buffalo]]es, elephants, rhinoceros, and the mythical "[[unicorn]]"{{efn|The commonly depicted "unicorn" is most likely a bull drawn in profile as to obscure one horn behind the other.{{sfnp|Bonta|2010|p=6}}}} accompanied the text on seals, possibly to help the illiterate identify the origin of a particular seal.{{sfnp|Sankaranarayanan|2007|p=15}}

===Late Harappan===
The [[Late Harappan period]], from {{circa|1900–1300 BCE|lk=no}}, followed the more urbanised Mature Harappan period, and was a period of fragmentation and localisation which preceded the early [[Iron Age in India|Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent]]. Inscriptions have been found at sites associated with the localised phases of this period. At Harappa, the use of the script largely ceased as the use of inscribed seals ended around {{circa|1900 BCE}}; however, the use of the Indus script may have endured for a longer duration in other regions such as at [[Rangpur, Gujarat]], particularly in the form of graffiti inscribed on pottery.{{sfnp|Kenoyer|2006|pp=10–11}} Seals from the [[Jhukar Phase|Jhukar phase]] of the Late Harappan period, centred on the present-day province of [[Sindh]] in Pakistan, lack the Indus script, however, some [[potsherd]] inscriptions from this phase have been noted.{{sfnp|Singh|2008|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}} Both seals and potsherds bearing Indus script text, dated {{circa|2200–1600 BCE|lk=no}}, have been found at sites associated with the [[Daimabad]] culture of the Late Harappan period, in present-day [[Maharashtra]].{{sfnp|Sali|1986|pp=504–505}}

===Post-Harappan===
{{Main|Megalithic graffiti symbols}}

Numerous artefacts, particularly potsherds and tools, bearing markings inscribed into them have been found in Central India, South India, and Sri Lanka dating to the [[Megalith]]ic Iron Age which followed the Late Harappan period. These markings include inscriptions in the Brahmi and [[Tamil-Brahmi]] scripts, but also include non-Brahmi [[Megalithic graffiti symbols|graffiti symbols]] which co-existed contemporaneously with the Tamil-Brahmi script.{{sfnp|Ray|2006|p=21-22}} As with the Indus script, there is no scholarly consensus on the meaning of these non-Brahmi symbols. Some scholars, such as the anthropologist [[Gregory Possehl]],{{sfnp|Possehl|1996}} have argued that the non-Brahmi graffiti symbols are a survival and development of the Indus script into and during the 1st millennium BCE.{{sfnp|Ray|2006|p=21-22}} In 1960,{{sfnp|Lal|1960}} archaeologist [[B. B. Lal (archaeologist)|B. B. Lal]] found that a majority{{efn|47 out of 61 signs surveyed.}} of the megalithic symbols he had surveyed were identifiably shared with the Indus script, concluding that there was a commonness of culture between the Indus Valley Civilisation and the later Megalithic period.{{sfnp|Ray|2006|pp=21–22}} Similarly, [[early Indian epigraphy|Indian epigraphist]] [[Iravatham Mahadevan]] has argued that sequences of Megalithic graffiti symbols have been found in the same order as those on comparable Harappan inscriptions and that this is evidence that language used by the Iron Age people of south India was related to or identical with that of the late Harappans.{{sfnp|Mahadevan|2001a}}{{sfnp|Mahadevan|2004}}{{sfnp|Mahadevan|2006}}