Writing+Systems



This artifact shows that that the Indus Valley had a distinct writing system. The language of the Indus Valley has not yet been deciphered, scientists and archaeologists have found 400 distinct symbols, other archaeologists have disputed this and say that there are 600 symbols. The term for this type of language that archaeologists have deemed fit is logophonetic which means that the symbols used in their language were used for their literal meaning, as well as their phonetic meaning. This artifact represents that because in the artifact their is a symbol that is interpreted as a fish. A popular theory is that the language is derivative from a proto-Dravidian language, using this theory, the symbol can be interpreted as a fish, in the proto-Dravidian language the word for fish is mîn, which is also the word for star. Scientist have found on many artifacts such as this that fish and starts were put together showing that the language is logophonetic.