Antelope Hieroglyphs of Near East and Indus Writing

in Private and State Contexts

Abstract
If there is one set of hieroglyphs which occurs with high frequency on both Neast East artifacts of
cylinder seals and other objects and on Indus script corpora of inscriptions, it is the antelope set.
Antelope occurs in 91 even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa, Eurasia
including India. According to the present classification, antelopes within the family bovidae include
species which are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison or goats. Greek antholops (anthos, flower + ops
eye) were considered fabulous animals haunting the banks of Euphrates, very savage, hard to catch
and having saw-like horns capable of cutting down trees. ("Antelope". Dictionary.com. Online
Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian.) The antelope species which have differences in
appearance, sizes and shapes of horns, include: Arabian oryx, dorcas, gazelle, ibex, nilgai, chinkara,
blackbuck, nyala, elands, kudus, Tibetan and Saiga antelopes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope#cite_ref-1
While there is a variety of orthographic representations of the bovidae in Near East and Indus writing
artifacts, it is possible to identify some etyma which could possibly have identified the animals, ca.
3500 BCE in the archaeological context and in the context of messages conveyed through hieroglyphs
and other script signs. Desinamamala of Hemacandra ed. R. Pischel (1938) includes a gloss ibbho
merchant (Dei substrate), which may be a semantic cognate of ibira which occurs on Near East
texts. Sumerian King List notes Bad-tibira as the second city to exercise kingship in Sumer before
the flood, following Eridu. the earliest lexically attested term for merchant is ibira or tibira,
equated with Akkadian tamkru in the basic lexical series ea=A=Naqu. [B. Landsberger, JAOS 88
(=Speiser AV, 1968) 133-147, esp. p. 139 line 126 and Landsbergers comments ad loc., p. 146; cf.
now MSL 14 (1979) 308:126.]The alternation between a vocalic onset and an initial t- marks the term
as a substrate word. But the same term is also equated with gurgurru, (MSL 12:103:231 and CAD G
s.v.) craftsman, and this may be its earlier meaning. What the nature of the craft may have been is
suggested by the fact that it is occasionally written with the logogram for metal-worker,
URUDU.NAGAR. [Landsberger, JAOS 88 (=Speiser AV, 1968) 146 and 126; elsewhere KA X KIB:
Ea III 126 and MSL 12:137:263; 16:87:270. For tibira in the meaning metal-worker see also idem
1974: 11.] This implies an early association of trading with itinerant metal-workers, a situation
familiar, for example, from the Irish tin-smiths or tinkers of later European history. Another term for
trader with a possible substrate origin may be dam-gar, here presumed to be the source of Akkadian
tamkru. [Landsberger 1974: 12.] (William W. Hallo, 1996, Origins: the ancient near eastern
background of some modern western institutions, EJ Brill., p. 69.)
1

Noting the semantics merchant and metallurgist, Forbes notes: like the mercatores of the Middle
Ages who were often both artisans and merchants at the same time. Hence the trade was only partly a
State-affair and dam-gar (tamkaru) was allowed a certain latitude to do some business of his own.
Hence the lots of 6-12 talents of metal sometimes go to the e-DUB-ba, the State storehouse, also called
house of the silver and the lapis lazuli, the great storehouse. Several tons of copper were consumed
yearly in each Sumerian town and the gold-smiths shops seem to have worked some 6K of red gold,
8K of refined gold and nearly 6K of silver in one year. (RJ Forbes, 1964, Studies in ancient
technology, Volume I, EJ Brill., p.86). One cylinder-seal impression which includes an antelope
hieroglyph may be cited: Cylinder-seal impression; a griffin and a tiger attack an antelope with its head
turned back. The upper register shows two scorpions and a frog; the lower register shows a scorpion
and two fishes. Syro-Mitannian, fifteenth to fourteenth centuries BCE, Pierpont Morgan Library, New
York. [After Fig. 9 in: Jack M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, p.2705].
Alternative rebus readings will be considered to explain the meaning of varieties of antelope
hieroglyphs in an archaeological and trade contexts of interaction areas of the Near East and Meluhha
(commonly identified with the areas of speakers who employed Indus script). The conclusion is that
antelope hieroglyphs denoted mineral (metal ore) worked on by artisans and also denoted a merchant
or a helper of a merchant. This may suggest a fresh look at and reconsideration of the messages
conveyed by thousands of cylinder seals which depict many animals, including antelopes, goats, rams,
scorpions or composite animals with wings. Some of these may also be explained as hieroglyphs read
rebus by literate-language communities, instead of merely explaining away some representations -only as objects of art appreciation -- to be hunting or banquet scenes or metaphors in the context of
assumed rituals in temples or communities. This hypothesis will be tested in the paper in the context of
artifacts and inscriptions discovered in
private property and State contexts at
Susa which is an interaction area
between the Near East and Meluhha
(Indus script corpora).

The monograph is organized in the following sections:

Locus, philology and archaeology studies
Private and State (or corporate guild): Substratum words in Sumerian and Indian sprachbund
Tin of Melukkha
Tin and the Development of Bronze Metallurgy. Early Use of Bronze.
Diffusion of Metallurgy: Meluhha and western Afghanistan sources of tin
Functions of tablets and seals: an archeological context
Hieroglyphs of Near East and Indus script corpora compared
Archaeological context
Hieroglyphs on Susa limestone vat
Mesopotamian trade with Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha
Harappan control over the Oman Sea
Annex A Images of antelope species occurring on cylinder seals and other artifacts of ancient
Near East and Indus script corpora
Annex B Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph: association with veneration of ancestors, sacredness
Annex C One Meluhhan village in Akkad (3rd millennium BCE)

Locus, philology and archaeology studies

Map showing interaction areas from Susa to Meluhha (Amri), 3rd millennium BCE

Sumerian mudhif (reed house) structure. Toda mund.

go = the place where cattle are collected at mid-day (Santali); goh (Brj.)(CDIAL 4336). Goha
(Skt.); cattle-shed (Or.) ko = a cow-pen; a cattlepen; a byre (G.)

cattle-shed (Marathi)

k ] A pen or fold for cattle.

[ gh ] f C (Dim. Of
) A pen or fold for calves.
(Marathi). kohaka1 (nt.) a kind of koha, the stronghold over a gateway, used as a store room
for various things, a chamber, treasury, granary Vin ii.153, 210; for the purpose of keeping water in it
Vin ii.121=142; 220; treasury J i.230; ii.168; -- store room J ii.246 (Pali)
go is cognate with -goy- in harosheth hagoyim (as discussed in this monograph).

A shape of a storehouse is also shown in a hieroglyph

deployed on Sohgaura copper plate (ca. 6th cent. BCE).

Sumerian e.dub.ba, "house of tablets", "school" is a place of learning where archives and literature
were stored on clay tablets. It was a storehouse. A cognate word of Indian sprachbund is hab s.
m. Shape, form; art, skill, knowledge (Punjabi) P. hab m. = copper coin of 2 pice ; H. habb,
habu m. unstamped lump of copper (CDIAL 5580). H. hb m. thatched roofing (CDIAL
5579).

[ b ] b. [Tel.] n. The cornice of a pillar, the projecting gallery round the top of a

tower; the crest of a bastion.

roof, opposed to a pent roof. H

,
dhb [prob. S.

. A terraced
+ ], s.m.

A flat roof of earth; a house so roofed. (Urdu)

pl, n. < T. dblu. Under- ground passage

to a fortified place;
. (W.) Rebus: ab, himba, hompo
lump (ingot?), clot, make a lump or clot, coagulate, fuse, melt together (Santali) Hieroglyph:
b large hollow vessel to feed cattle from(B.) w large earthen cup (Mth.) (CDIAL 5528).
B. bar water-vessel(CDIAL 5530). Allograph: P. abb m. spot ; P. dhabb m. spot ;
N. dhabbo stain, spot , H. dhabb m., G. dhb n.(CDIAL 5529). Hieroglyph: abe, abea large
horns, with a sweeping upward curve, applied to buffaloes (Santali) dhb in Indian sprachbund can
be semantically explained as a workshop storehouse to hold ab melted, fused (ingots).
Some elements of the glyptic art in Near East artifacts and Indus script corpora, evidenced in an
extensive interaction area, can be read rebus as hieroglyphs.
Major advances in archaeology and philology studies provide a framework for identifying glosses of
languages associated with hieroglyphs of the Near East and Indus-script-corpora interaction areas:
1. Identification of sources of tin in Meluhha1
2. Archaeological context unrveling function served by Indus script tablets2
3. Indian sprachbund (positing Language X + Munda) providing substrate glosses3

A cylinder seal of Gudea of Lagash (2143-2124 BCE) -- Cylinder B: XIV -- read: "copper, tin,
blocks of lapiz lazuli and ku ne (meaning unknown), bright carnelian from the land of Meluhha."
(Muhly, JD, 1976, Copper and Tin, Hamden, Archon Books, pp. 306-7). "...tin may well often have
travelled by sea up the Gulf from distribution centres in the Indus Valley. In the Old Babylonian period
tin was shipped through Dilmun It is now known that Afghanistan has two zones of tin
mineralization. One embraces much of eastern Afghanistan from south of Kandahar to Badakshan in
the north-east corner of the country the other lies to the west and extends from Seistan north towards
Herat , the valley of the Sarkar river, where the hills are granitic. Here tin appears commonly as
cassiterite, frequently associated with copper, gold, and lead, and in quantities sufficient to attract
attention in antiquity A number of scholars have pointed out the possibility that tin arrived with gold
and lapis lazuli in Sumer through the same trade network, linking Afghanistan with the head of the
Gulf, both by land and sea." (Moorey, 1994, opcit, p. 298-299). Meluhhan speakers had hieroglyphs
for tin as demonstrated in Indian Hieroglyphs (S. Kalyanaraman, 2012).
2
Archaeological context of excavations at Harappa revealed the possible functions served by tablets as
distinct from seals. Inscriptions on tablets found at working platforms were part of inscriptions on
seals. This gives an insight into the purpose of the Indus writing, further discussed in Indian
Hieroglyphs (S. Kalyanaraman, 2012). cf. Mark Kenoyer J. and Richard H. Meadow, Inscribed objects
from Harappa excavations 1986-2007, in: Asko Parpola, B.M. Pande and Petteri Koskikallio, 2010,
Corpus of Indus seals and inscriptions, Volume 3: new material, untraced objects, and collections
outside India and Pakistan, Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, pp. xliv-lviii
http://www.harappa.com/indus/Kenoyer-Meadow-2010-HARP.pdf

4. Reconstruction of Sumerian Lexicon providing substrate glosses4

5. Study of glosses in Tocharian5
6. Postulation of Proto-Vedic continuity theory6 to explain the formation of Indian sprachbund
with Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibetan, Munda + Language X (Mleccha, Meluhha) interactions
in a cultural area and contacts with Elam (Sumer)/Mesopotamia. This is exemplified in the
language areal map adapted after Southworth including Vedic and Mleccha.

http://tinyurl.com/82ay2le Indo-European etymology kurunga 8.4.19, name of a chieftain of the

Turvaa (cf. Kuiper 1991: 6, 17); EWA I 371 Mayrhofer, M., Worterbuch des Altindoarischen .
Heidelberg 198696 (EWA); Kuiper, FBJ, 1991, Aryans in the Rigveda, Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi
1991. Cf. Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Rgvedic, Middle and Late Vedic).
http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0501/ejvs0501article.pdf
4
Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/nepsd-frame.html
including links to Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative DLI documentation http://cdli.ucla.edu/
Gerd Carling, Georges-Jean Pinault, Werner Winter, 2008, Dictionary and thesaurus of Tocharian
A,Volume 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. http://tinyurl.com/bvgakth cf. lexme *ancu- 'iron' in Tocharian
(cognate Ved. amu-) discussed by Georges-Jean Pinault (2006). Georges-Jean Pinault, 2006, Further
links between the Indo-Iranian substratum and the BMAC language in: Bertil Tikkanen & Heinrich
Hettrich, eds., 2006, Themes and tasks in old and middle Indo-Aryan linguistics, Delhi, Motilal
Banarsidass, pp. 167 to 196. Cf. discussions on ancu (Tocharian), amu (Vedic)
at: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html
5

Protovedic Continuity Theory (S. Kalyanaraman and Mayuresh Kelkar, 2005)

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/protovedic-continuity-theory.html

These advances have been complemented by SARVA Project7 and Indian Lexicon8 which help
identify substrate glosses which may help in decoding writing systems which deploy hieroglyphs, such
as Indus script9 and Proto-Elamite10. Also available are resources from nighau-s such as a glossary of
Hemachandra De nmaml, for example: kolhuo, kulho jackal (dei. Hemachandra) ; kolo, kullo
the neck(dei. Hemachandra); dolio spotted antelope (dei. Hemachandra); dolo the eye (dei.
Hemachandra). Rebus: dul to cast metal in a mould (Santali) It is possible that fish-eyes or eye
stones referred to in ancient Mesopotamian texts as imports from Dilmun (Akkadian IGI-HA, IGIKU6) mentioned in Mesopotamian texts., refer to the hieroglyph of dotted circle (hieroglyph: fish-eye
or antelope-eye) connotes dol eye;
rebus: dul cast metal.
M1909. Pict-49 Uncertain animal
(perhaps antelope) with dotted circles on
its body.

SARVA is acronym for South Asian Residual Vocabulary Assemblage

http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/sarva/entrance.html
8
Assuming an Indian sprachbund, Indian Lexicon. [Kalyanarman, S. 1998. Indian Lexicon A
comparative etymological dictionary of South-Asian Languages, Manila is an assemblage of lexemes
from over 25 ancient languages of the region of Ancient India extending beyond the present-day
borders. http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97 (Online
download) http://www.scribd.com/doc/2232617/lexicon]
9

Hundreds of hieroglyphs in Indus writing are discussed in S. Kalyanaraman, 2012, Indian

Hieroglyphs, Herndon, VA. http://tinyurl.com/cnelreb The existence of Indian sprachbund is
substantiated by hundreds of concordant lexemes (matching homonyms and allographs) used for
bronze-age repertoire of bronze-age artisans and merchants.
10
J.L. Dahl: Proto-Elamite is the last un-deciphered writing system from the Ancient Near East with a
substantial number of sources (more than 1600 published texts).
http://cdli.ucla.edu/wiki/doku.php/proto-elamite cf. other links at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProtoElamite

Such substrate words are in the glossary of Hemachandra edied by Pischel, and constitute words which
are not identiable as direct tatsama-s or tadbhava-s from Samsktam and hence posited as, from
Language X + Munda (which together can be called Meluhha, mleccha speech or mleccha-vcas in
the Indian sprachbund.) The hieroglyph of a slanted stroke in front of the animal on m1908 is: dh a
slope; inclination of a plane (G.); dhako large metal ingot (G.) of agara antelope; rebus:
agara tin. Cf. cognae: tamkru, damgar merchant(Sumerian). The early meaning is likely to be:
metal-worker, mint-worker.
1, 9, 8,

aka-clai n. < aka-l. Mint. See

.(

.)(Tamil) akal -- , akaka f. mint lex. [aka -- 1, l -- ] N. aksl, r,

B. ksl, k, ek, Bhoj. aksr, H. aksl, r f., G. ks f., M. ksl, k, k, ak. -- Deriv.
G. aks m. mint -- master , M. ksy m. akal -- : Brj. aks, sr m. mint -- master
.(CDIAL 5434). Hieroglyph:
2. Ram;

takar, n. [T. tagaru, K. tagar.] 1. Sheep;

.(

.)

.(
(

.)

, 486). cf.

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/acarya-hemacandra-1088-1173-ce.html
The work of identifying glosses of the sprachbund is a first step spanning neolithic and bronze-ages.
Further researches are needed to delineate the evolution of etyma, unique features of languages of the
sprachbund and grammatical innovations and adaptations, in a historical chronological framework
from the days of mleccha-vcas and rya-vcas of dahyu, people. (cf. Manusmrti).
Copper was called mlecchamukham. Amarakoa (2.9.97; K.G. Oka, The Amarakoa, repr. Delhi, 1981,
p. 155) reads: atha tmrakam, ulvam mlecchamukham dvyaa varia odumbarn.i ca: four words are
given as synonyms: tmraka, ulva, mlecchamukham, udumbaram. Mleccha is cognate meluhha11.
Abhidhna Cintmai of Hemachandra states that mleccha and mleccha-mukha are two of the twelve
names for copper: tmram (IV.105-6: tmram mlecchamukham ulvam rakt tam dvaam udumbaram;
mleccha vara bhedkhyam markatsyam kanyasam; brahmavarddhanam variham ssantu
ssapatrakam). milakkhurajanam (The Thera and Therigth, PTS, verse 965: milakkhurajanam rattam
garahant sakam dhajam; tithiynam dhajam keci dhressanty avadtakam; K.R.Norman, tr.,
Theragth: Finding fault with their own banner which is dyed the colour of copper, some will wear
the white banner of sectarians). In this text, milakkhurajanam clearly refers to characteristic colour of
copper establishing that the lexeme milakkhu meant copper.12
Tin of Melukkha

11

cf. Asko and Simo Parpola, On the relationship of the Sumerian Toponym Meluhha and Sanskrit
Mleccha, Studia Orientalia, vol. 46, 1975, pp. 205-38).
12

http://sarasvatihieroglyphs.blogspot.in/2006/04/bronze-age-trade-and-mleccha-writing.html

Background
Cuneiform texts from Mari on the Euphrates record the storage of 500 kilograms of tin, and
shipment to cities such as Ugarit on the Syrian coast, to Dan and Hazor in Palestine, and even to
Captara, i.e. Crete. (Edwin Yamauchi, 1993, Metal sources and metallurgy in the biblical world,
Oxford, OH 45056, Dept. of History, Miami University From: PSCF 45 (December 1993): 252259. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1993/PSCF12-93Yamauchi.html ) [See: G. Dossin, "La
route de l'tain en Mesopotamie au temps de Zimri-Lim," Revue d'Assyriologie 64 (1970), 97-106.
M. Heltzer, "The Metal Trade of Ugarit and the Problem of Transportation of Commercial
Goods," Iraq 39 (1977), 203-11. A. Malamat, "Syro-Palestinian Destinations in a Mari Tin
Inventory," Israel Exploration Journal 21 (1971), 31-38.]
"The Bronze Age exploitation of the Omani copper deposits seems to have coincided with what are
most likely two related phenomena: (1) references in Mesopotamian texts to copper from Magan and
to obtaining that copper either directly from Magan or through the intermediate agency of Dilmun (the
island of Bahrain)-- the copper did not come FROM Dilmun but THROUGH Dilmun; and (2) the
period of the Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilization.
"This second correlation suggests that contact and trade with Mesopotamia were factors contributing to
the development of the Indus Valley civilization, established in an area known to the Sumerians as the
land of Melukkha. So close was the relationship that the traders of Dilmun used the same system of
weights and measures as that found in the Indus Valley. From the figures given in Sumerian texts it
would appear that the Dilmun shekel was about three times heavier than the standard Sumerian one. It
has been thought by some scholars that transactions at Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh) were also
conducted on the basis of the Dilmun shekel, but this reading of the sign in question in the Ebla texts
cannot be substantiated, and all theories regarding references to Dilmun at Ebla remain conjectural...
Tin and the Development of Bronze Metallurgy. Early Use of Bronze.
The most important metallurgical development during the Early Bronze Age was the discovery that
adding tin to copper produced a far superior metal, eventually known as bronze. In its classic form,
bronze has 10 percent tin and 90 percent copper. The addition of even 2 percent tin has noticeable
effects upon the hardness and working properties of copper, but anything over 16 percent tin is
undesirable, for a very high tin content makes copper brittle and difficult to work. Objects such as the
ax head from the A cemetery at Kish (modern Tell al-Uhaimir; Early Dynastic, or ED, IIIB), with 15.5
percent tin, are probably to be assessed as being of early, experimental alloys.
"The historical development of bronze metallurgy has been difficult to document, and locating ancient
sources of tin has proved to be an even more intractable problem...the cache of human figurines from
Tell Judeidah (northern Syria), the excavators' date of about 3000 (transition Amuq G-H) still seems
the most probable...A pin from Tepe Gawra VIII (early third millennium) siad to have 5.6 percent tin
unfortunately can no longer be located, but four artifacts from the Y cemetary at Kish, of ED I date,
proved to have more than 2 percent tin. These are the earliest examples of bronze from Mesopotamia.
One of these objects, a spouted jar, has 6.24 percent tin..."Sources of Tin and the Tin Trade...The tin
was brought to Asshur from some point further east, most likely Afghanistan. The Assyrian merchants
purchased the tin for reshipment, by donkey caravan, and sale (at a 100 percent markup) in
Anatloia...The Old Assyrian tin trade was on a large scale and enriched three generations of Old
Assyrian merchant families...

10

"Tin exists in nature in the form of cassiterite, an oxide of tin. The cassiterite most likely utilized by
Bronze Age metal workers was alluvial or placer cassiterite, popularly known as tin-stone and present
as nuggets or pebbles in the beds of streams...Alluvial cassiterite was collected by panning the bed of a
stream, much like the recovery of alluvial gold...Gold and tin often occur within the same general area
as, for example, in the Eastern (Arabian) Desert of Egypt. Ancient Sardis, the region of the Tmolus
(modern Boz Dag) mountain range and the Pactolus River, was famous as an ancient source of alluvial
gold, the source of wealth for Croesus, king of Lydia, but no placer cassiterite has been documented
from Anatolia...
"Mari and the Tin Trade...the texts from Mari (Tell Hariri), dating mainly to the first half ot the
eighteenth century BCE...(tin) came to Mari through Elam, from Susa and Anshan (now identified
with the Central Iranian site of Tepe Malyan), and Elamites played a major role in the trade, especially
a man named Kuyaya. Certain merchants from Mari were also heavily involved in the tin trade with
Elam, among them a merchant named Ishkhi-Dagan (the two appear together in ARM 23 555). The tin
came to Mari in the form of ingots (Akkadian le_'u) that weighed about ten pounds each. It is possible
to obtain some idea of the relative value of this tin, for a number of the Mari texts provide a tin:silver
ratio of 10:1 (the most common ratio; a few texts give ratios from 8:1 to 15:1). This is to be compared
with isolated referenced to a tin:gold ratio (48:1), a confusing silver:gold ratio of 4:1 as well as 2:1,
and a lead:silver ratio (1200:1). The usual copper:silver ratio at Mari was 180:1 for unrefined
'mountain' copper, with refined (litarally 'washed') copper being valued at 150:1. This means that tin
was usually from fifteen to eighteen times more valuable than copper...In later texts from Nuzi
(fifteenth century BCE) goods were priced in amounts of tin. An ox cost thirty-six minas of tin; an ass,
twenty-four minas. During the Middle Assyrian period tin seems to have functioned as the monetary
standard (temporarily replacing the customary silver). Plots of land were purchased with tin...
"The cuneiform archives contain a number of 'recipe' texts, giving the amounts of coper and tin used to
make specified amounts of bronze. One of the earlist such texts, from Palace G at Ebla, records that 3
minas, 20 shekels of tin were alloyed with 30 minas of copper to produce 200 objects of bronze, each
weighing 10 shekels. In other words, 200 shekels of tin were mixed with 1,800 shekels of copper to
produce 2,000 shekels of a 10 percent tin-bronze. In one Mari text 20 shekels of tin were added to 170
shekels of refined copper from Teima at the rate of 1:8, to produce 190 shekels of bronze for a key (to
the lock of a city gate)...This means that smiths at Mari were working with the metals themselves-with copper and tin--not with ores or minerals. That is no smelting was being carried out in the vicinity
of the Mari palace...
"At the other end of the Mari trade network, the texts record that tin stored at Mari was transhipped to
various cities in the Levant, from Karkamish in the north to Hazor in the south. This we learn from a
remarkable tin itinerary that concludes with the recording of '1 (+) minas of tin to the Cretan; 1/3 mina
of tin to the translator, chief (merch)ant among the Cretans; (dispensed) at Ugarit...' (ARM 23 556).
This striking passage indicates that there were Minoan merchants (the text uses the name Kaptaru,
generally taken to designate the island of Crete) doing business (perhaps also residing) at Ugarit
(modern Ras Shamra) toward the beginning of the Old Palace period in Crete. Furthermore, the
Minoan merchants seem to have had a translator (Akkadian, targamannum; the origin of the common
European 'dragoman') who was also the leader of the Minoans doing business at Ugarit. Such
translators are known from other periods of Mesopotamian history. We have the cylinder seal of a
Sargonic official who served as translator for the Melukkha merchants who came to Agade from the
Indus Valley, perhaps bringing with them the tin of Melukkha, a commodity mentioned in one of the
statue inscriptions of Gudea, ruler of Lagash. A Mari text, dated to the ninth year of the reign of Zimri-

11

Lim, refers to the construction of a 'small Kaptaru boat', perhaps to be taken as a model ship for ritual
purposes or as the designation of a ship built for sailing to Crete. A possible parallel for this would be
the Egyptian references to Byblos ships (for sailing to the ancien Syrian port of Byblos (modern
Jubayl) and Keftiu ships (built for sailing to Crete)... (James D. Muhly, 1995, Mining and Metalwork
in Ancient Western Asia, in: Jack M. Sasson, ed. 1995, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III,
New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 1501-1521).
"In the ancient Near East... when working gold by streaming, nodules of cassiterite (or tin-stone SnO2)
were found. This cassiterite was reduced by workers already proficient in the production of gold, silver
and lead. The metal obtained was held to be a kind of lead. [In Sanskrit, the term for lead is: nga. In
Akkadian, the term for tin is: anakku). Lead and antimony were already used to increase the ease with
which copper could be cast, but neither of them improved in its other qualities, notably the tensile
strength. From trials with the new kind of 'lead', it would be learnt that this mixture was now improved
in tensile strength as well as in ease of casting. Nor was it necessary to produce this new metal first;
unrefined copper had only to be smelted with charcoal and stream-tin to produce a new kind of 'copper'
(ayas in Rigveda), namely bronze, with superior qualities for tools and weapons. At the same time,
certain naturally mixed ores were also worked, and were found to give the better kind of 'copper'
directly. We have no proof that the tin compound of these mixed ores was ever isolated or recognized.
Furthermore, at this early stage the tin content of the bronze could not be adequately controlled, and
therefore varied between fairly wide limits." (Adapted from: R.J.Forbes, 1954, Extracting, smelting
and alloying, in: Charles Singer, E.J.Holmyard and AR Hall (eds.), 1954, A History of Technology,
Oxford, Clarendon Press).
Note on tin used to alloy with copper to create bronze. "One ingot fragment, probably of the mid-third
millennium BCE, possibly found at Tell al-Ubaid, has been identified as alloyed copper. It is 88.2 per
cent copper, 8.91 per cent tin with impurities...Muhly (Muhly, JD, 1973, Copper and Tin: The
distribution of mineral resources and the nature of the metals trade in the bronze age, Hamden: Archon
Books,220 ff.; Muhly, JD, 1976, Copper and Tin, Hamden, Archon Books, 104 ff.) has thoroughly
reviewed the ancient textual sources for the use of copper and its trade in Mesopotmia, with extensive
commentary on their relation to known deposits in the area. Archaic texts from Uruk (III) indicate that
already by the later fourth millennium BCE Dilmun was engaged in the metals trade ." (Moorey,
P.R.S., 1994, Ancient Mesopotamian materials and industries, the archaeological evidence, Oxford
University Press, p. 245). Muhly notes: "...copper is likely to be a local product; the tin was almost
always an import...There is certainly no tin on Cyprus, so at best the ingots could have been
transhipped from that island. How did they find their way to Haifa? "(Muhly, JD, 1979, The evidence
for sources of and trade in Bronze Age tin, in Franklin AD, Olin JS, Wertime, TA, The search for
Ancient Tin, Washington DC: A seminar organized by Theodore A. Wertime and held at the
Smithsonian Institution and the national Bureau of Standards, Washington DC, March 14-15, 1977, pp.
43-48). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_sources_and_trade_in_ancient_times

12

ranku 'antelope' (Santali); rebus: ranga, ran, 'pewter is an alloy of tin lead and antimony (ajana)'
(Santali). ranku 'tin' (Santali) ranga tin (Skt.)(CDIAL 10562). While discussing the rules for the use
of solid instruments, Bharata in Nyastra defines the term, saindhavaka as a regional
dialect. Tarlekar notes: "The use of the Prakrit dialects in Sanskrit plays of the classical period points
to the fact that these, together with Sanskrit were intelligble to the spectators. The hero speaks in
Sanskrit and the heroine responds in Prakrit and the hero further goes on in Sanskrit. All this would not
have been possible if both were not intelligible to the characters concerned and the spectators. In the
popular plays like Prahasana, the people's language, that is, Prakrit was dominant." (G.H. Tarlekar,
1975, Studies in the Nyastra, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 38). Two remarkable insights provided
by Muhy and Potts have made this possible. Muhly noted, the emergence of bronze age trade and
writing system13 may be two related initiatives which started circa 3rd millennium Before Common
Era (BCE). Potts identified a glyph in what is clearly an Indus script epigraph as tabernaemontana
flower which in Indic family of languages and in many ancient ayurveda texts is called tagaraka, read
rebus tagara tin, also tagara hair fragrance. This monograph reads the epigraphs inscised on the tin
ingots as Indian hieroglyphs of mleccha (meluhha) language which is part of the Indic language family
in Sarasvati river valley which accounts for 2000 (77%) of the 2600 archaeological sites of the
civilization.

Nima Nezafati et al find indications that Deh Hosein may have been a major supplier of tin for ancient
civilisations of Iran and Mesopotamia and perhaps even further west beginning in the third millennium
13

Srinivasan Kalyanaraman, 2006, Bronze age trading and writing system of Meluhha (Mleccha) evidenced by
tin ingots from the vicinity of Haifa, Paper presented in 5th International Congress on Achaeology of the
Ancient Near East (ICAANE), Madrid, 3-8 April 206 http://tinyurl.com/7odgzl3

13

BCE. [Nima Nezafati, Ernst Pernicka & Morteza Momenzadeh, 2006, Ancient tin: Old question and a
new answer, Antiquity, Vol. 80, No. 308 (June 2006)] http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Science/tin.htm
Diffusion of Metallurgy: Meluhha and western Afghanistan sources of tin
"Investigators in all periods have been faced with one major fact. Because southern Mesopotamia is
virtually lacking in mineral resources, the materials used to make the metal artifacts found there must
have come from another locale. Thus, our research led to the metallogenic zones in Iran, Afghanistan
and Oman, where ores of copper, amont others, are known to occur in substantial quantities...we have
also uncovered significant new information on tin deposits which could have been exploited in
antiquity...Other metals were also used for this purpose (alloying) by ancient metal workers, most
notably arsenic, antimony and lead. Arsenic, in particular, played an important role in the early
metallurgy of the Near East...The earliest occurrence of tin-bronze date to the 4th millennium.Though
the total number of artifacts analyzed from this period is not large, those of tin-bronze are even fewer:
three pins from Necropolis A at Susa (with tin contents of 4%, 8% and 2.3% respectively), and an awl
from Sialk III (0.95%). 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...arond 270 BC, during Early Dynastic III in
Mesopotamia...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...In addition, a contemporary shaft-hole axe from Kish
contains 4% tin, and significant amounts were detected in a few artifacts from Tepe Giyan and Tepe
Yahya IVB in Iran, and Hili in Oman. Thus, we see an increasing pattern of tin usage...We explored
the area south of Herat, where several deposits of tin were said to exist. At Misgaran, tin appears 500
meters north of a copper mine which was worked in ancient times, although the precise dates of
exploitation are not known. The copper ores here contain over 600 ppm (0.06) of tin. Tin-bearing
sands, which can be easily beneficiated by panning, were worked in the nearby Sarkar Valley. There
too the tin was found in association with copper, green traces of which are visible throughout the
landscape...Gudea of Lagash (2150-2111BCE)speaks of the tin of Meluhha...the geographer Strabo
(XV.2.10) who, in referring to the inhabitants of Drangiana (modern Sistan), says that they have 'only
scanty supplies of wine, but they have tin in their country'...this passage..does accord well with the
discoveris in the area of Herat...There are two possible routes from Afghanistan to Mesopotamia. One
crosses the northern part of the Iranian plateau, along the Elburz mountains, then through the passes in
the Zagros descends to Babylonia and Assyria. In the 1st millennium it was one of the principal supply
routes of eastern goods to Assyria. In the 2nd millennium the tin that Assur exported to Anatolia might

14

have followed this route. Along it are found such sites as Tepe Sialk (where the use of tin is attested in
the 4th millennium), Tepe Giyan and Tepe Hissar, wehre other finds (such as lapis lazuli at Hissar)
implicate them in long-distance commerce in the 3rd millennium.
"The second route is by sea, along the Arabian coast of the Gulf, perhaps also going by land through
souther n Iran. It was at the time of Gudea of Lagash and earlier in the Early Dynastic III period, the
great supply route of eastern commodities to southern Mesopotamia. It is by this route that the copper
of Makkan came, copper which analysis has shown to have originated in the peninsula of Oman. It
also brought the products of Meluhha, including lapis lazuli, carnelian, copper, ivory and various
woods. Nothing, however, suggests the passage of tin through this area. For example, there is little tin
in the artifacts recovered at Qala'at al Bahrain, dating between 2300 and 1800 BC. Furthermore, we
know from the work of Limet, who studied texts concerned with metalworking in Sumer, that
Mesopotamian metalworkers did their own alloying. We suspect, therefore, that the tin moved through
this area in an unalloyed state.
"Recently Oman has yielded the first signs of the use of tin in the region. The analysis of a sword from
Hili, dated to the mid-3rd millennium, shows a tin content of 6.5%, and a mold of a tap hole (?)
associated with the remains of a furnace held metal with a tin content of 5%. The furnace is dated after
the tree-ring calibration of a radiocarbon analysis (MC 2261) to circa 2225 BC...it is clear that the tin
was added to the copper and it is also clear that it did not come from Oman itself. At Umm an-Nar
artifacts with tin contents on the order of 2% were recovered; the tin must have been mixed with the
local copper...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 quantities in artifacts from Sahr-iSokhta in eastern Iran and at Tepe Yahya in southern Iran...In the Indus Valley, the copper-tin alloy is
known at Mohenjodaro.
"...Oman's trade with southeastern Iran and Baluchistan is well attested...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 discoveries of tin in artifacts at Hili,
though singular, are important because the site lies in an area clearly involved in long-distance trade.
However, there is no clear evidence that the site was a way-station on the route which brought tin from
Afghanistan to Mesopotamia. Therefore the presence of tin at Hili indicates only that it was
transported in the Gulf area, where it was also used to fill local needs.
"The collective indications are that western Afghanistan ws the zone able to provide the tin used in
Southwest Asia in the 4th and 3rd millennia...In order to elucidate the questions raised by our findings,
a project aimed specifically at tin-- its sources and metallurgy-- should be organized." (Serge Cleuziou
and Thierry Berthoud, Early Tin in the Near East, in: Expedition, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1982, pp. 14-19).
Private and State (or corporate guild): Substratum words in Sumerian and Indian sprachbund

15

Indian Hieroglyphs14 has identified rebus readings which point to the operations of a guild as a
corporate form. It is unclear if a state as a controlling authority in socio-economic or religious affairs
of a community had emerged during the times and in locations which created the writings now
compiled as Indus script corpora. It is possible that some temples of the period in Mesopotmia and
Elam (Sumer) were not state-controlled but by priests and scribes who managed the guilds and created
a treasury as a warehouse for the guild. Mesopotamia and Elam (Sumer) which had used cuneiform
script to record trade transactions had used hieroglyphs on cylinder seals to denote professions such as
lapidary, turner, trader, or smith. Indus script has been decoded as an advance beyond the classification
system of tokens, tallies, bullae to record worker contributions through use of inscribed tablets,
denoting the nature of products. Products delivered into the warehouse from the worker platforms,
were compiled and bills of lading for consignments prepared using inscribed seals/seal impressions.
Over 1000 hieroglyphs have been identified and rebus readings of glyphs and homonyms have been
presented from the languages of Indian sprachbund. In Mesopotamia and Elam (Sumer), syllabic
cuneiform script was used to write names and professions on seals. In Indus script corpora, there is no
evidence of any syllabic script in addition to hieroglyphs. There are intimations, as in Kanmer seals, of
markings which may have been precursors of kharoh/brhm syllabic scripts. From ca. 3rd century
BCE, birch-bark manuscripts have been found in kharoh script and also cast/punch-marked coins
inscribing hieroglyphs combined with kharoh/brhm syllabic scripts (used only to denote names,
titles).
kharo 'blacksmith lip, carving' and harosheth 'smithy' Suniti Kumar Chatterjee suggested that
khar may be cognate with harosheth in: harosheth hagoyim 'smithy of nations'. Etymology of
harosheth is variously elucidated, while it is linked to 'chariot-making in a smithy of nations'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harosheth_Haggoyim See also:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/archaeological-mystery-solved-site-of.html Harosheth
Hebrew:

; is pronounced khar-o-sheth? Most likely, (haroshet) a noun meaning a carving.

Hence, kharo came to represent a 'carving, engraving' art, i.e. a writing system. Harosheth-hagoyim
See: Haroshet [Carving]; a forest; agriculture; workmanship;Harsha [Artifice: deviser: secret work];
workmanship; a wood http://tinyurl.com/d7be2qh Cognate with haroshet: kar m. dragging P.,
agriculture p.(CDIAL 2905).

14

S. Kalyanaraman, 2012, Indian Hieroglyphs, Herndon, VA. http://tinyurl.com/cnelreb

16

karaa n. tugging, ploughing, hurting Mn., cultivated land MBh. [krati, kr] Pk. karisaa -n. pulling, ploughing ; G. karsa n. cultivation, ploughing ; OG. karasa m. cultivator , G.
karas m. -- See kraa -- .(CDIAL 2907). Harosheth-hagoyim is the home of general Sisera, who
was killed by Jael during the war of Naphtali and Zebulun against Jabin, king of Hazor in Canaan
(Judges 4:2). The lead players of this war are the general Barak and the judge Deborah. The name
Harosheth-hagoyim obviously consists of two parts. The first part is derived from the root , which
HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament treats as four separate roots (harash I, II, III, &
IV). The verb (harash I) means to engrave or plough. HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament reads, "The basic idea is cutting into some material, e.g. engraving metal or plowing soil."
Derivatives of this verb are: (harash), meaning engraver; (haroshet) a noun meaning a carving. This
word is equal to the first part of the name Harosheth-hagoyim; (harish), meaning plowing or plowing
time; (maharesha) meaning ploughshare; (harishi), a word which is only used in Jona 4:8 to indicate a
certain characteristic of the sun - vehement (King James) or scorching (NIV). The verb (harash II)
most commonly denotes refraining from speech or response, either because one is deaf or mute, or
because one doesn't want to respond. None of the sources indicates a relation with the previous root,
and perhaps there is none, but on the other hand, perhaps deafness was regarded in Biblical as either
being marked or else cut or cut off. The noun (horesh) from root (hrsh III) occurs only in Isaiah 17:9
and has to do with a wood or forest. The noun (heresh) from root (hrsh IV) occurs only in Isaiah 3:3
and probably means magical art or expert enchanter, or something along those lines. The second part
of the name, hagoyim, comes from the definite article (ha plus the common word (goy) meaning
nation, people, gentile. This word comes from the assumed root (gwh), which is not translated but
which seems to denote things that are surpassed or left behind. Other derivatives are: (gaw a and gew),
meaning back, as in "cast behind the back," i.e. put out of mind (1 Kings 14:9, Nehemiah 9:26, Isaiah
38:17); (gewiya), meaning body, either dead or alive (Genesis 47:18, Judges 14:8, Daniel 10:6). The
meaning of the name Harosheth-hagoyim can be found as any combination of the above. NOBS Study
Bible Name List reads Carving Of The Nations, but equally valid would be Silence Of The Gentiles or
Engraving Of What's Abandoned. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads
Manufactory for Harosheth and "of the Gentiles" for Hagoyim. http://www.abarimpublications.com/Meaning/Harosheth.html
Hieroglyph: goat: [Br.m is without etymology; see MBE 1980a.] Te. mrka (so correct) is of
unknown meaning. Ka. mke she-goat; m the bleating of sheep or goats. Te. meka,
mka goat. Kol. meke id. Nk. mke id. Pa. mva, (S.) mya she-goat. Ga. (Oll.) mge, (S.)
mge goat. Go. (M) mek, (Ko.) mka id. ? Kur. mxn (mxyas) to call, call after loudly,
hail. Malt. mqe to bleat. / Cf. Skt. (lex.) meka- goat.(DEDR 5087).

17

WPah.bhal. mei f. wild goat ; H. meh m. ram ; Skt. m m. ram , -- f. ewe RV. 2. mha - 2, miha- m. lex. [mha -- 2 infl. by mhati emits semen as poss. mhra -- 2 ram (~ mha -2) by mhra -- 1 penis ?]1. Pk. msa -- m. sheep , Ash. mial; Kt. me/l ram ; Pr. m
ram, oorial ; Kal. me, mealk ram , H. mes m.; -- X bhra -- q.v.2. K. my -- ptu m. the young
of sheep or goats (CDIAL 10334).
, in khara-ponzu

Rebus: khar 5

unmeaning scrawls in imitation of writing, made by

untaught children, or the like.(Kashmiri)khr 1

this word is khran 1

m. (sg. abl. khra 1

; the pl. dat. of

, which is to be distinguished from khran 2, q.v., s.v.), a blacksmith, an

iron worker (cf. bandka-khr, p. 111b, l. 46; K.Pr. 46; H. xi, 17); a farrier (El.). This word is often a
part of a name, and in such case comes at the end (W. 118) as in Wahab khr, Wahab the smith (H. ii,
12; vi, 17). khra-basta

f. the skin bellows of a blacksmith. -bh - ; ;

f. the wall of a blacksmith's furnace or hearth. -by f. a blacksmith's wife (Gr.Gr. 34). -dkuru hammer, a sledge-hammer. -gji - ;
or hearth. -hl -

furnace; cf. hl 5. -kr -

m. a blacksmith's

; or -gj - &above;

f. a blacksmith's furnace

f. (sg. dat. -hj - &above; &below;), a blacksmith's smelting

&below;

f. a blacksmith's daughter. -kou

m. the son of a blacksmith, esp. a skilful son, who can work at the same profession. -k ;
f. a blacksmith's daughter, esp. one who has the virtues and qualities properly belonging
to her father's profession or caste. -m 1
f. (for 2, see [khra 3] ), 'blacksmith's earth,' i.e. iron-ore. -ncyuwu m. a blacksmith's son. -nay -

f. (for khranay 2, see [khrun] ), the

trough into which the blacksmith allows melted iron to flow after smelting. -a
f.pl. charcoal used by blacksmiths in their furnaces. -wn
forge, smithy (K.Pr. 3). -wah -

a blacksmith as an anvil.(Kashmiri)

m. (sg. dat. -waas -

m. a blacksmith's shop, a
), the large stone used by

18

Allograph: khra 2

(= ) or khr 4

(L.V. 96, K.Pr. 47, iv. 827)

a thorn, prickle, spine (K.Pr. 47; iv. 827, 153)(Kashmiri)

m. (for 1, see [khr 1] ),

khar , 'A kind of alphabet;

Lv.1.29'. Often, there is an alternative (perhaps, erroneous) transliteration as khar. The compound
is composed of: khar + (or,

'mfn. burnt' (CDIAL 2386); ua -- settled (CDIAL 2385) ha

m. lip RV. Pa. oha -- m., Pk. oha -- , u, hoha -- , hu m., Gy. pal. t, eur. vut m.; Ash. ,
Wg. , w, Kt. y (prob. Ind. NTS xiii 232); Pa. lau. h f. Ind. (?), gul. lip , dar.
weg. u bank of a river (IIFL iii 3, 22); Kal. rumb. , u lip ; Sh. m. upper lip , i f.
lower lip ( e pl.); K. wuh, dat. has m. lip ; L. hoh m., P. hoh, hh m., WPah. bhal. oh
m., jaun. hh, Ku. h, gng. h, N. oh, A. h, MB. Or. oha, Mth. Bhoj. oh, Aw. lakh. h, hh, H.
oh, h, hoh, hhm., G. oh, hoh m., M. oh, h, ho m., Si. oa.WPah.poet. ohu m. lip , hou,
kg. hh, kc. h, Garh. hoh, h. (CDIAL 2563). In the context of use of the term khar for a
writing system, it is apposite to interpret the compound as composed of khar + 'blacksmith + lip'.
"The Kharo scrolls, the oldest collection of Buddhist manuscripts in the world, are radiocarbondated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The group confirms
the initial dating of the Senior manuscripts to 130-250 CE and the Schyen manuscripts to between the
1st and 5th centuries CE."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_in_archaeology "The Kharo script is an ancient Indic script used
by the Gandhara culture of ancient Northwest South Asia(primarily modern-day Afghanistan and
Pakistan) to write the Gndhr language (a dialect of Prakrit) and the Sanskrit language. An abugida
(or "alphasyllabary"), it was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BCE until it died out in its
homeland around the 3rd century CE. It was also in use in Kushan, Sogdiana (see Issyk kurgan) and
along the Silk Road where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th century in the
remote way stations of Khotan and Niya...As preserved in Sanskrit documents the alphabet runs: a ra
pa ca na la da ba a a va ta ya a ka sa ma ga stha ja va dha a kha ka sta j rtha (or ha) bha cha
sma hva tsa gha ha a pha ska ysa ca a ha ...

19

Paper strip with writing in Kharoh. 2-5th century CE, Yingpan, Eastern Tarim Basin,
XinjiangMuseum...The Kharo script was deciphered by James Prinsep (17991840), using the
bilingual coins of the Indo-Greeks (Obverse in Greek, reverse in Pli, using the Kharo script). This
in turn led to the reading of the Edicts of Ashoka, some of which, from the northwest of the Indian
subcontinent, were written in theKharo script...The study of the Kharo script was recently
invigorated by the discovery of the Gandharan Buddhist Texts, a set of birch-bark manuscripts written
in Kharoh, discovered near the Afghan city of Hadda just west of the Khyber Pass in modern
Pakistan. The manuscripts were donated to the British Library in 1994. The entire set of manuscripts
are dated to the 1st century CE, making them the oldest Buddhistmanuscripts yet discovered."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/kharo-blacksmith-lip-carving-and.html
Functions of tablets and seals: an archeological context
Examples of 22 duplicates steatite triangular tablets h-2218 to h-2239 were excavated in an
archaeological context by HARP Project15. Tablets were tallies of products from workers platforms.
Seals were consolidated data from tablets to prepre bills of lading or entrustment notes, jangaa, for
approval.
h2219A First side of three-sided tablet

h2219B Second side of three-sided tablet

h2219C Third side of three-sided tablet

The two glyphs which appear on the h2219A example also appear on a seal. In a street deposit of
15

http://www.harappa.com/indus/Kenoyer-Meadow-2010-HARP.pdf

20

similar age just inside the wall, a seal was found with two of the same characters as seen on one side of
the tablets.

h1682A. The seal which contained the two glyphs used on the tally three-sided tablets. The seal
showed a one-horned heifer + standard device and two segments of inscriptions: one segment showing
the two glyphs shown on one side of the tally tablet; the other segment showing glyphs of a pair of
rectangle with divisions + three long linear strokes.
Hieroglyphs of Near East and Indus script corpora compared

3/4 Left, full-front. Stand. Bronze, Cyprus. AN258515001 Findspot:

21

(Europe,Cyprus,Limassol (district),Kourion) 1250BC-1050BC Bronze four-sided stand with figural

decoration on each panel; the frame is formed of cast bronze rods, standing on four feet with flat legs;
on top is a composite ring consisting of a wavy band between two parallel rods; the four panels are
decorated with the figures cast separately in open moulds; all the constituent parts of the stand are hard
soldered together; the four figural scenes depict a more or less identical male figure facing a highly
stylised tree with voluted leaves; he wears a long, kilt-like garment extending to the ankles but is
naked from the waist up; the facial features are fleshy with a prominent nose; his hair (or wig) falls to
the nape of the neck; each scene shows a different gesture: approaching the tree with an oxhide ingot
over shoulder; holding fish-like objects in lowered hands; carrying a long, scarf-like indeterminate
object over his right shoulder, one end of which trails on the ground; seated playing a large, manystringed lyre supported with a strap around his neck, apparently serenading the tree (possibly a sacred
image of fertility). Dimensions Height: 12.5 centimetres Width: 9.5 centimetres Diameter: 8.5
centimetres (ring) http://tinyurl.com/7u7xwwe
Loha (nt.) [Cp. Vedic loha, of Idg. *(e)reudh "red"; see also rohita & lohita] metal, esp.
copper, brass or bronze. It is often used as a general term & the individual application is not always
sharply defined. Its comprehensiveness is evident from the classification of loha at VbhA 63, where it
is said lohan ti jtiloha, vijti, kittima, pisca or natural metal, produced metal, artificial (i. e.
alloys), & metal from the Pisca district. Each is subdivided as follows: jti=ayo, sajjha, suvaa,
tipu, ssa, tambaloha, vekantakaloha;vijti=nga -- nsika; kittima=kasaloha, vaa,
raka; pisca=morakkhaka, puthuka, malinaka, capalaka, selaka, aka, bhallaka,
dsiloha. The description ends "Tesu paca jtilohni piya visu vuttn' eva (i. e. the first category
are severally spoken of in the Canon). Tambaloha vekantakan ti imehi pana dvhi jtilohehi saddhi
sesa sabbam pi idha lohan ti veditabba." On loha in similes see J.P.T.S. 1907, 131. Cp.
A iii.16=S v.92 (five alloys of gold: ayo, loha, tipu, ssa, sajjha); J v.45 (asi); Miln 161 (suvaam
pi jtivanta lohena bhijjati); PvA 44, 95 (tamba=loha), 221 (tatta -- loha -- secana pouring out of
boiling metal, one of the five ordeals in Niraya). -- maya made of copper, brazen Sn 670; Pv ii.64.
Ranga-- kra dyer Miln 331.Vaa1 (adj. -- nt.) [pp. of vt, Sk. vtta in meaning of "round"-- kra a
worker in brass. The meaning of vaa in this connection is not clear; the same vaa occurs
in loha ("round" metal?).

22

Cognate with ibira, some lexemes semant. herdsmen: 1232 bhra m. name of a people MBh.,
herdsman Mn., r -- f. lex. Pk. bhra -- , h, ahira -- , hra -- ; Ku. ahr a partic. low caste;
B. hir, f. hri cowherd, Or. hira, f. ri, Bi. ahr, Bhoj. Aw. ahir, H. ahr, f. ran, rn; G.hr m.,
f. r pastoral tribe in Kathiavad, herdsman, hr n. pl. herdsmen (spoken of affectionately or
contemptuously); M. ahr m., f. ahira, r, herdsman, a caste of dras in Khandesh who are
traders. -- K. yiru m. forest hunter rather < kha -- . (CDIAL 1232).
The word state has to be used in quotes because of the possibility that the state was in reality a
guild, a corporation of artisans/merchants who engaged in a cooperative effort and deposited their
products in a common treasury. The analyses of the Indus writing finds such a process. Further finding
is that there was a differentiation among professions, say between workers working on working
platforms and using tablets to document delivery of products for approval as entrustment notes -janga and the scribes documenting the furnace accounts. Such tablets delivered by the artisans will be
compiled into seals by scribes to describe the consolidated consignment. The seal impressions could
then be used as tallies or accompaniments to bills of lading of a consignment entrusted to a courier,
jangaiyo. Such seal impressions constituted enrustment notes of the package: janga.]
Is this a depiction of a jangaiyo in an Indus interaction area?
Deutsch: Barren-Gott, 12. Jh. v. Chr., Fundort Enkomi, Zypern-Museum
Nikosia. Protector of the ingot, bronze, Enkomi, Cyprus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BarrenGott,_Enkomi,_12._Jh._v._Chr._C.jpg

In the Late Bronze Age, Cyprus produced numerous bronze stands that depicted a man carrying an
oxhide ingot. The stands were designed to hold vases, and they were cast through the lost-wax
process. [Vassos Karageorghis and George Papasawas, "A Bronze Ingot-Bearer from
Cyprus," Oxford Journal of Archaeology 20 (2001): 341, 344.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxhide_ingot#cite_note-50

23

The Indus script inscriptions using hieroglyphs on two pure tin-ingots

found in Haifa were reviewed. (Kalyanaraman, S., 2010, The Bronze Age
Writing System of Sarasvati Hieroglyphics as Evidenced by Two Rosetta
Stones - Decoding Indus script as repertoire of the mints/smithy/mineworkers of Meluhha. Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies. Number 11. pp. 47
74).
The picture of these two ingots was published by J.D. Muhly [New evidence for sources of and trade
in bronze age tin, in: Alan D. Franklin, Jacqueline S. Olin, and Theodore A. Wertime, The Search for
Ancient Tin, 1977, Seminar organized by Theodore A. Wertime and held at the Smithsonian
Institution and the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., March 14-15, 1977]. Muhly
notes:"A long-distance tin trade is not only feasible and possible, it was an absolute necessity. Sources
of tin stone or cassiterite were few and far between, and a common source must have served many
widely scattered matallurgical centers. This means that the tin would have been brought to a
metallurgical center utilizing a nearby source of copper. That is, copper is likely to be a local product;
the tin was almost always an importThe ingots are made of a very pure tin, but what could they have
to do with Cyprus? There is certainly no tin on Cyprus, so at best the ingots could have been
transhipped from that island What the ingots do demonstrate is that metallic tin was in use during
the Late Bronze Agerather extensive use of metallic tin in the ancient eastern Mediterranean, which
will probably come as a surprise to many people." (p.47)

m0516At

m0516Bt

3398 [Copper tablet; side B perhaps is a graphemic

representation of an antelope; note the ligatured tail

takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin (Ta.); tin, tinned iron plate (Ma.); tagarm tin (Ko.);
tagara, tamara, tavara id. (Ka.) tamaru, tamara, tavara id. (Ta.): tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id.
(Te.); agromi tin metal, alloy (Kuwi); tamara id. (Skt.)(DEDR 3001). trapu tin (AV.); tipu (Pali); tau,
taua lead (Pkt.); tu~_ tin (P.); au zinc, pewter (Or.); taraum lead (OG.); tarvu~ (G.); tumba lead
(Si.)(CDIAL 5992).
takar sheep, ram, goat (Ta.); tagar ram (Ka.); tagaru (Tu.); tagaramu, tagaru (Te.); tagar (M.)(DEDR
3000).
agara = tabernae montana (Skt.)
Heb. tamar "palm tree, date palm. "
tam(b)ra = copper (Pkt.) tibira = merchant (Akkadian)

24

tabar = a broad axe (P.lex.) Rebus: teba, tebor. three times, thrice; tebage emok hoyoktama you will
have to give three times that (Santali)
Chanhu-daro Seal obverse and reverse. The oval sign of this Jhukar culture seal is comparable to other
inscriptions. Fig. 1 and 1a of Plate L. After Mackay, 1943. The hieroglyphs of the seal relate
representations of bun ingots to two orthographic representations of antelopes: one is shown walking,
the other is shown with head turned backwards. A flower is shown, perhaps, a representation of
tabernae Montana. Hieroglyph of looking back:
turn, return, go back.

or

back, recall. To revoke, annul, rescind.

Again.

or

[krammaru] krammaru. [Tel.] v. n. To

krammarinsu. v. a. To turn, send
.

Same as

krammara. adv.
. krm back(Kho.)(CDIAL 3145)

Kho. krm back NTS ii 262 with (?) (CDIAL 3145)[Cf. Ir. *kamaka -- or *kamraka -- back in
Shgh. m back , Sar. om EVSh 26] (CDIAL 2776) cf. Sang. kamak back , Shgh. om (<
*kamak G.M.) back of an animal , Yghn. kama neck (CDIAL 14356). kr, kr neck (Kashmiri)
Kal. g neck ; Kho. go front of neck, throat . gala m. throat, neck MBh. (CDIAL 4070)
Rebus: karmra smith, artisan (Skt.) kamar smith (Santali)
"Susa... profound affinity between the Elamite people who migrated to Anshan and Susa and the
Dilmunite people... Elam proper corresponded to the plateau of Fars with its capital at Anshan. We
think, however that it probably extended further north into the Bakhtiari Mountains... likely that the
chlorite and serpentine vases reached Susa by sea... From the victory proclamations of the kings of
Akkad we also learn that the city of Anshan had been re-established, as the capital of a revitalised
political ally: Elam itself... the import by Ur and Eshnunna of inscribed objects typical of the Harappan
culture provides the first reliable chronological evidence. [C.J. Gadd, Seals of ancient style found at
Ur, Proceedings of the British Academy, XVIII, 1932; Henry Frankfort, Tell Asmar, Khafaje and
Khorsabad, OIC, 16, 1933, p. 50, fig. 22). It is certainly possible that writing developed in India before
this time, but we have no real proof. Now Susa had received evidence of this same civilisation,
admittedly not all dating from the Akkadian period, but apparently spanning all the closing years of the
third millennium
(L. Delaporte, Musee du Louvre. Catalogues des Cylindres Orientaux..., vol. I, 1920pl. 25(15), S.29.
P. Amiet, Glyptique susienne, MDAI, 43, 1972, vol. II, pl. 153, no. 1643)...
B. Buchanan has published a tablet dating from the reign of Gungunum of Larsa, in the twentieth
century BC, which carries the impression of such a stamp seal. (B.Buchanan, Studies in honor of
Benno Landsberger, Chicago, 1965, p. 204, s.).

25

The date so revealed has been wholly confirmed by the impression of a stamp seal from the group, fig.
85, found on a Susa tablet of the same period. (P. Amiet, Antiquites du Desert de Lut, RA, 68, 1974, p.
109, fig. 16. Maurice Lambert, RA, 70, 1976, p. 71-72). It is in fact, a receipt of the kind in use at the
beginning of the Isin-Larsa period, and mentions a certain Milhi-El, son of Tem-Enzag, who, from the
name of his god, must be a Dilmunite. In these circumstances we may wonder if this document had not
been drawn up at Dilmun and sent to Susa after sealing with a local stamp seal. This seal is decorated
with six tightly-packed, crouching animals, characterised by vague shapes, with legs under their
bodies, huge heads and necks sometimes striped obliquely. The impression of another seal of similar
type, fig. 86, depicts in the centre a throned figure who seems to dominate the animals, continuing a
tradition of which examples are known at the end of the Ubaid period in Assyria... Fig. 87 to 89 are
Dilmun-type seals found at Susa. The boss is semi-spherical and decorated with a band across the
centre and four incised circles. [Pierre Amiet, Susa and the Dilmun Culture, pp. 262-268].

Fig.85; Susa, tablet: seal impression, Louvre Sb 11221

Fig. 86; Susa, sealing: seal impressionl Louvre MDAI, 43, no. 240

Fig. 87; Susa, stamp seal from the Gulf, Louvre, MDAI, 43, No. 1716; depicts two
goat-antelopes crouching head to tail, inside and outside an oval. Incised eyes are
saucer-shaped.

Stamp seal from Susa , at Louvre Museum. Susa is one of the oldest known settlements of the world,
possibly founded about 4200 BC, although the first traces of an inhabited village have been dated to
ca. 7000 BCE. The seal depicts two goat-antelopes head to tail, outside an oval.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0809/0809.3566.pdf (Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, 2008, Symmetries
in images on ancient seals.)

26

An early cylinder seal from Mesopotamia (Frankfort, pl.IIIb).Double snake and rosette between double
goat .

Bactria: tablet depicting an animal with its head looking back; similar pictorials are seen
in seals at Chanhudaro (Mackay 1943: pl. L1).

Fig. 88; Susa, stamp sealfrom the Gulf, Teheran museum, MDAI, 43, no. 1717; an animal tamer
wearing a skirt and grasping with one hand a goat-antelope with its head turned back and with its feet
bound; with the other hand, the person holds a large object which looks like an architectural feature or
shield or perhaps, a ladder.

Fig. 89; Susa, stamp seal from the Gulf, Teheran Museum, MDAI, 43, no.
1718; a person, naked and thin, has a stylised head shaped like a narrow arch
with indentations to mark the nose and mouth. Animals have bound feet and
surround a square object on which the person stands.

Fig.90; Susa, cylinder seal from the Gulf, Louvre, MDAI, 43, no. 2021; made of steatite; a person with
a horned tiara, wearing an unevenly chequered robe; the person
is attended by a naked man and alongside are two tamers
grasping a pair ofcrossed animals.

27

Fig. 91; Susa, cylinder seal from the Gulf, Teheran Museum, MDAI, 43, no. 1975; steatite; three
figures with stylised heads in the form of notched arches, wearing boldly chequered
skirts; one is seated; the other two stand with backs turned, hold an enormous
feathered arrow, and one of them extends a hand towards a stylised goat-antelope.
Fig. 92; Susa, stamp seal made of bitumen compound, Louvre, MDAI, 43, no. 1726; a
tamer with three heavily hatched animals

Fig. 93; Susa

stamp seal made of bitumen compound,

Louvre,

MDAI, 43, no. 1720

Fig. 94; Susa, stamp seal from a butimen compound, Louvre,

MDAI, 43, no. 1726

Fig. 95; Susa, stamp seal of bitumen compound, Louvre, MDAI, 43, no. 1725; a woman shown fullface is squatting with legs apart, possibly on a stool. (A similar image of a woman with legs spread
outoccurs on an Indus tablet).

Bahrain seal: Two antelopes

28

Bactria; metal pins; fig 2.10 is a pin with a head

in the shape of two sitting rams; this resembles a
pin was found in Mohenjodaro with a head in the
form of seated goats with helically bent horns
(Mackay 1937: pl. C3). Pins with zoomorphic
heads is typically noticed in southwest Iran and
the Near East. Fig. 2.11-12 show pins with heads
in the shape of clenched fist with parallels of
similar pins in Mesopotamian royal tombs of Ur
(Maxwell-Hyslop 1971: 13, fig.11). Good
examples of Iranian-Afghan-Indian ties.

Tin bun ingot. Late Bronze Age, 10th-9th century B.C.E. Salcombe
shipwreck, 300 yards off the South Devon coast, England, 2009. Jim
Tyson, South West Maritime Archaeological Group
http://www.archaeology.org/1005/etc/artifact.html
An Early Dynastic II votive plaque from the Inanna temple at Nippur VIII (after Pritchard, 1969: 356,
no. 646). "It has something very Harappan about it also in the lower part depicting two 'unicorn' bulls.
around a tree. The six dots around the head of the Harappan hero, clearly visible in one seal
(Mohenjodaro, DK 11794; cf. Mackay, 1937: II, pl. 84:75) may be compared to the six locks of hair
characteristic of the Mesopotamian hero from Jemdet Nasr to Akkadian times (cf. Calmeyer, 1957-71:
373). From the Early Dynastic period onwards the scene usually comprises a man fighting with one or
two bulls, and a bull-man fighting with one or two lions....North-west India of the third millennium BC
can be considered as an integral, if marginal, part of the West Asian cultural area." (Parpola, A., New
correspondences between Harappan and Near Eastern glyptic art, in: Bridget Allchin (ed.), South Asian
Archaeology, 1981, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984).
A Bronze Age cargo of copper ox hide ingots and tin bun ingots. Uluburun shipwreck, 1375 BCE.

29

Finds on the coast and underwater from the end of the

Bronze Age, an important transition period, includes
urban sites along the coast as well as stone anchors, ox
hide copper ingots and bun tin ingots.

http://www.springerimages.com/Images/Environment/1-10.1007_s11852-010-0107-2-8
Copper ingot Period: Late Bronze Age Date: ca. 14501050 B.C.E. Culture: Cypriot
Medium:Copper Dimensions:width 14 3/8in. (36.5cm) length 17 1/2in. (44.5cm)
Classification: Bronzes Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1911
Accession Number: 11.140.7 This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 173

Cyprus is thought to have been the main producer of copper in the Late Bronze Age, although very
few ingots, apart from miniature votive ingots, have been found there. Ingots of this characteristic
shape were made only in the Late Bronze Age and seem to be the usual form in which pure copper was
transported as a raw material to the ports of the eastern Mediterranean. Copper was mixed with tin,
usually in a nine-to-one ration, to make finished bronze objects such as the adjacent stand
(74.51.5684). The ingot's irregular surface was produced as the pure copper cooled in the open mold in
which the metal was cast. The sheer weight of the ingot, approximately sixty-three pounds, is
testimony to the large scale of the copper industry at this time and the bulk quantities of copper that
were being exchanged. The discovery off the coast of Anatolia at Ulu Burun of a Late Bronze Age
shipwreck with a cargo of over ten tons of Cypriot copper ingots provides remarkable confirmation of
the extensive international metals trade in which Cyprus clearly played an important role.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-thecollections/130008969?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=*&what=Ingot&pos=6
Cylinder seal: lion and sphinx over an antelope
Period: Late Cypriot II Date: ca. 14th century B.C.E.
Geography: Cyprus Culture: Cypriot Medium: Blackgrey steatite Dimensions: 0.83 in. (2.11 cm)
Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seal
Credit Line: The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by
subscription, 1874-76
Accession Number: 74.51.4313

30

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 173 Said to be from Amathus, Cyprus. 18651872,
found in Cyprus by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola; acquired by the Museum in 1874, purchased from
General Luigi Palma di Cesnola http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-thecollections/30000008
The depiction of a bulls head together with an antelope is
significant and recalls the association of bulls head with
oxhide ingots. The antelope looking backwards is flanked
by a lion (with three dots at the back of the head) and a
winged animal (tiger?)

Cylinder seal: man grasping an antelope, bull's head over ingot

Period: Late Cypriot Date: ca. 16th12th century B.C.E. Geography: Cyprus, Ayia Paraskevi; Cyprus
Culture: Cypriot Medium: Black-grey steatite
Dimensions: 0.63 in. (1.6 cm) Classification:
Stone-Cylinder Seal Credit Line: The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by
subscription, 1874-76
Accession Number: 74.51.4325
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 173 Said to be from
Amathus, Cyprus. 18651872, found in Cyprus by General Luigi Palma di
Cesnola; acquired by the Museum in 1874, purchased from General Luigi
Palma di Cesnola. http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-thecollections/30000037?rpp=20&pg=1&gallerynos=173&ft=*&pos=6
Bulls head over the ox-hide ingot is a phonetic determinant of the
hieroglyphs: Hieroglyph: K. angur m. bullock (CDIAL 5526). Rebus: gar blacksmith (H.)
(CDIAL 5524). m h face; rebus: m h ingot (Mu.) The antelope on the Cypriot seal is mreka goat
(Telugu); rebus: mleccha-mukha copper; milakkhu copper (Pali). meh helper of merchant (G.)
Drawing of a Dilmun seal. Six antelopes. baa six (G.); rebus: bhaa furnace (Santali) mh ram;
rebus: meh helper of merchant (G.)
Hieroglyphs from a vase in Tell Asmar (29-27th
cent. BCE). Pair of tigers, pair of zebu; a person
holding two snakes; eagle and lion attacking a
zebu.

31

Archaeological context
Archaeological evidence for types of ingots comes from the Uluburun shipwreck which included ten
tons of copper ingots, one ton of tin ingots, perhaps constituting one complete package. Artifacts found
included:

Three hundred and fifty-four copper ox-hide ingots (four-handled and two-handled types)

One hundred and twenty one copper bun ingots (discoid or plano-convex)

One ton of ox-hide tin ingots (N11 and N12 on the map grid) Source:
http://sara.theellisschool.org/~shipwreck/artifacts.html
Ox-hide copper ingots (four

Ox-hide copper ingots (two

handles)

handles)

Three hundred and fifty-four

The ten tons of raw copper on

One hundred and

copper ox-hide ingots (four-

the ship comprised the main

twenty-one copper

handled and two-handled

cargo. This raw material

bun ingots (discoid

types were found. The ingots

would have been mixed with

or plano-convex)

are called "ox-hide" because

tin when the ship reached its

were found.

their shape resembles the

destination to make bronze

This was an

stretched skin of an ox,

for weapons, tools etc. The

alternative shape of

drying on a rack It is

hold carried enough copper

copper ingot on the

speculated that the copper

and tin to make three hundred

ship. It is

ingots on this ship were

bronze helmets and breast

interesting that

molded with four handles so

plates.

many of these

they could be easily carried.

An ingot is metal that has

ingots had signs

They are called ox-hide

been molded into a particular

scratched onto the

ingots because they looked

shape. The two handled

surface ( anchor

like the hide of an ox with

variety was not as popular

design etc.). The

four legs.

because it would be more

signs were probably

difficult to carry. The ingots

the mark of the

on this ship weighed about 60

person who

lbs. each. (A talent in the

controlled this

ancient world was 60 lbs. of

commodity.

metal.)

Copper bun ingots

32

Bun ingots (tin?) with

incised markings from
Uluburun shipwreck.
Source:

One ton of ox-hide tin ingots were

found. (See N11 and N12 on the

http://sondmor.tripod.com/index-7.html

map of the wreck.)

The Uluburun shipwreck documents the earliest appearance of tin ingots of oxhide shape. G.F. Bass
had identified white, oxhide-shaped ingots portrayed in Theban tombs as tin. (Shelly Wachsmann,
1988, Seagoing ships & seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant, Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical
Archaeology Series, p. 303).
This raw material was rare in the ancient world but it was essential for making bronze (copper and tin).
It is interesting that this ship carried both raw materials for making bronze. This shipwreck is
important because archaeologists usually dont find raw materials on land sites. As soon as these
materials reached their destination, they would be made into bronze tools and weapons and it is the
finished product that archaeologists usually find.
Heb. abar means not only to cross, but also to traverse, to wanderIn Syriac we have abora,
transient, wayfarerThe Assyrian equivalent of Arab abir, viz. ebiru, which was afterwards
pronounced ibir, has passed into Sumerian as ibira (OC 32, 758; JBL 37,136) which corresponds to
the Assy. tamkaru, the prototype of Arab. tajir, merchant (JBL 36,141, n.3; 37,221).The original
meaning of ibira is itinerant merchant, traveling chapman, peddler, hawkerWe find in Sumerian also
tibira with initial t, the same prefix which we have in tamkaru and targumanuIt is interesting that
both terms for merchant in Sumerian, ibiria (or tibira) and damgar, are Semitic loan-words.(Paul
Haupt, 1919, The Peregrin falcon, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 38, No. , 1919, p.153)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3259159.pdf

33

Considerable specialization in trade is demonstrated by the fact that the texts mention not only plain
tamkru (merchants) but also tamkru of the king and of governors, as well as tamkru engaged in
buying and selling cattle and dates. Temples also often had recourse to the services of the tamkru.
The kings tamkru dealt in selling goods belonging to the king and carried on usury in the kings
interest. Thus, according to a document of the time of Nebuchadrezzar, a kings merchant paid in
Babylon a certain quantity of silver out of the kings property for gold. It is noteworthy that the
chief tamkru at the court of Nebuchadrezzar was Hanunu, who, judging by his name, was a
Phoenician.(Boardman, John, 1991, Cambridge Ancient History III Part 2, The Assyrian and
Babylonian empires and other states of the Near East, from the eighth to the sixth centuries BC,
Cambridge University Press, p.273).
Many conflict motifs depicted on early Sumerian cylinder seals and artifacts may relate to the gloss:
tamhru damhara [BATTLE] wr. dam-ha-ra "battle" Akk. tamhru because the word is phonetically
close to tamkru merchant. The Sumerian gloss is: damgar [MERCHANT] wr. dam-gar3 "merchant,
trader". As a substrate word, the likely cognate glosses occur in Indian sprachbund with the semantics
not of a merchant but of a blacksmith as evidenced by the following etyma from Indian sprachbund.
gar horned cattle (K.); rebus: gar blacksmith (H.)
A. Hieroglyph: damr young bull, dmuri calf ; B.dm castrated bullock; Or. dma heifer
, dmai bullcalf, young castrated bullock, dmu, i young bullock. (CDIAL 6184) 1.
WPah.kg. gg m. a head of cattle , gge m.pl. cattle, sat. (LSI ix 4, 667) gai cattle. 2.
S.kcch. hago m. ox, L (Shahpur) hagg m. small weak ox, hagg f. cow, Garh. h gu old
bull.(CDIAL 5524a). 1. K. angur m. bullock, L. agur, (Ju.) gar m. horned cattle;
P. agar m. cattle, Or. agara; Bi. gar old worn-out beast, dead cattle, dhr gar cattle
in general; Bhoj. gar cattle; H. gar, gr m. horned cattle. 2. H. d gar m. =
prec.(CDIAL 5526). Ku. g lean (e.g. of oxen) ; N. g male (of animals) ; L.
(Shahpur) hagg small weak ox , hagg f. cow ; S. higaru m. lean emaciated beast .
(CDIAL 5524).
B. Allograph: step, stride:1. N. ag step, stride , H. ag f., OMarw. aga f., G. ag, agl n.;
M. ag f. pace , ag to step over ; -- agara footstep
2. P. gh f. foot, step ; N. eg, ek pace ; Mth. eg footstep ; H. ig, eg f.
pace .(CDIAL 5523).
C. Allograph: road: Or. agara road ; Mth. agar road , H. agar f.,
agr m., G. agar f. L. dagg m. road , dagga rh m. wide road
(mult. aggar rh < dagga?); P. daga m. road , H. dag m. (CDIAL 5523).
D. Allograph: Hill: M. agar f. little hill, slope .S. akuru m. mountain N.
kuro, ri hill top . P. ekr m., r f. rock, hill ; H. ekar, kr m. heap, hillock
; G. ekr m., r f. mountain, hillock .6. K. g m. hillock, mound .7. G. k

34

peak .8. M. g n. mound, lump . Ext. r -- : Or. uguri hillock ; M. gar n. bump,
mound (see uungara -- ); -- -- l -- : M. ga, g n.9. K. ki f. hill, rising ground . Ext.
r -- : K. akr f. hill on a road .10. Ext. r -- : Pk. aggara m. upper terrace of a house ;
11. Ku. g, k stony land ; B. heap , g hill, dry upland ; H. g f. mountain
ridge ; M. g m.n., ga, g, g n. hill tract . Ext. r -- : N. agur heap .12.
M. g m. hill, pile , g m. eminence , g f. heap . Ext. r -- : Pk. ugara m.
mountain ; Ku. gar, gr; N. ugar heap ; Or. uguri hillock , H. gar m., G. gar m.,
gr f. 13. S.garu m. hill , H. M. gar m. 14. Pa. tuga -- high ; Pk. Tuga -- high ,
tug ya m. mountain ; K. tng, t ngu m. peak , P. tug f.; A. tug importance ; Si.
Tungu lofty, mountain . Cf. uttuga -- lofty MBh. 15. K. th ngu m. peak . 16. H. d g f.
hill, precipice , d g belonging to hill country . Addenda: *akka 3. 12. *uga -- : S.kcch.
ghar m. hillock . (CDIAL 5423). Unc An eminence, a mount, a little hill (Marathi). kuro =
hill top (N.); ng = hill, stony country (Or.); n:gara = rocky hilly land (Or.); n:g = hill, dry
upland (B.); ~g = mountain-ridge (H.)(CDIAL 5476). Marathi.

[ ga ] m n ( H Peak

or summit of a hill.)
E. Rebus: Mth. hkur blacksmith; G. hk r, kar m. member of a clan of Rajputs, hakr f.
his wife, hk r god, idol ; M. hkur m. jungle tribe in North Konkan, family priest, god,
idol; Garh. hkur master; A. hkur also idol (CDIAL 5488). Or. ga one who is reduced
to a skeleton , Ku. glo lean, emaciated ; gar blacksmith (H.); h~gar., dh~gar
blacksmith; digger of wells (H.) Nepali. re , or gre, adj. Large; lazy; working with- out
thoroughness or seriousness; -- a contemptuous term for a blacksmith ro, or gro, s. A
term of contempt used for a blacksmith (kmi). [v.s.v. re.] n:ro = a term of contempt for a
blacksmith (N.); N. igar contemptuous term for an inhabitant of the Tarai(CDIAL 5524).
hakkaru, hakkaruu = a deity; an idol; an honorific title same as hkru = a father; a religious
preceptor (Te.lex.)
tamkru, dam-gar (Sumerian, Aramaic) is a substrate word from Meluhha, that is Indian sprachbund =
hkur master, perhaps mint-master. gr smith. Hieroglyphs deployed was: agara, tagar ram
(Indian sprachbund) cf. DEDR 3000. gar horned cattle(H.) (CDIAL 5526). Allographs: tagara
tabernae montana coronaria, fragrant shrub (Pali) cf. CDIAL 5622. g hill (B.)CDIAL 5423).
The hieroglyphs deployed on Sumer (Uruk, Failaka etc.) are thus decoded and read rebus in the
context of the work of the artisan/trader of a mint. In the context of a lingua fraca, also explained as a
commonly understood meluhha (mleccha) speech in Near East and Indus-script-corpora area, that is, in
harosheth hagoyim smithy of nations cognate: kharo gya (lit. smiths lip writing clan. For gya
(Pkt.) cf. CDIAL 4279 gtra family, clan.] A homonym: Brahui. m, Telugu. mrka goat (cf.
DEDR 5087) is a hieroglyph/phonetic determinant for meluhha (Sumerian), mleccha-mukha (Skt.),

35

milakkha/milakkhu (Pali) copper (trader/worker). Hence, Akkadian Shu-ilishus cylinder seal

described himself (in cuneiform inscription) as a Meluhha interpreter, for a Meluhhan, who carried a
goat as a phonetic determinant of his profession -- an artisan/trader of a mint. The hieroglyph of a goat
carried by him was the merchant/artisans calling card. His associate carrying a kamaalu vessel
holding liquid was a determinant of the Meluhhans professional association with rasa metallurgy or
early chemistry for transmuting metals in an incipient alchemical tradition. Antelope hieroglyph gloss
ranku rebus for ranku tin became the written representation (mlecchita vikalpa, lit. meluhhans
alternative representation) for a mineral which was essential as an alloying component with copper to
create the alloy, bronze, which heralded the Bronze Age ca. 3500 BCE. A writing system
complemented the activities of the innovation, a veritable industrial revolution of the times: bronzeworkers and bronze-traders.
A search for glosses to match with hieroglyphs is justified by the clearly identifiable and meaningful
images (as hieroglyphs) on the Great Lyre panel found in Ur. The challenge is to find glosses which
explain the semantics of the hieroglyphs.
Note the dagger tucked in the waist belt of the jackal in the second register. It connotes a blacksmith
who makes metal daggers. This is a clear indication of the hieroglyphic nature of the composition and
can be read rebus. In Indian sprachbund, a jackal is kolhuo, klu- as in klu-puli

or

royal tiger. (Telugu) Rebus semant. kol blacksmith.

Hieroglyph: kul tiger (Santali); klu id. (Te.) klupuli = Bengal tiger (Te.)Pk. Kolhuya -- ,
kulha m. jackal < khu -- ; H.kolh, l m. jackal, adj. crafty ; G. kohl , l n.
jackal, M. kolh, l m. kr crying BhP., m. jackal RV. = kru m. P. [ kru] Pa.
kohu -- , uka and kotthu -- , uka m. jackal, Pk. kohu m.; Si. koa jackal, koiya
leopard GS 42 (CDIAL 3615).

[ klh ]

[ klh ] A jackal (Marathi)

36

Rebus: kol furnace, forge (Kuwi) kol alloy of five metals, pacaloha (Ta.) Ta. kol working
in iron, blacksmith; kolla blacksmith. Ma. kollan blacksmith, artificer. Ko. kolel smithy,
temple in Kota village. To. kwalal Kota smithy. Ka.kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume,
kulme fire-pit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith; (Gowda) kolla id. Ko.
koll blacksmith. Te. kolimi furnace. Go.(SR.) kollusn to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstn,
kulsn to forge; (Tr.) klstn to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy
(Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge (DEDR 2133).

kollar, n. Watchmen at the

entrance-gate of a palace;

.
(

kolla, n. <

. [M. kollan.] Blacksmith;

(

kammlai =

. 1035).
.

. 207).

kolla-

kolla-paarai, n. < id. +. Blacksmith's workshop,

smithy;

k ll, n. < T. golla. A trust- worthy

employee in public treasuries;

. Loc.

kol-l-ulai, n. < id. +. Black-smith's forge;

. 14).

Bhirrana4

Allograph: Kur. xol tail. Malt. qoli id. (DEDR 2135). [The short-tail is a hieroglyph which is
ligatured to an antelope as a hieroglyph read rebus. Such a ligatured-tail evolved into a sign of the
Indus script which appears on inscribed copper-tablets.] Rebus: kol working in iron (metal),
blacksmith (in this case, tin-smith). baa six (hence six short strokes)(G.); rebus: bhaa furnace,
smelter (Santali). The stalk in front of the antelope is explained rebus: kolmo rice-plant(Santali);
rebus: kolami smithy/forge (Te.) The antelope orthography shows a ram: tagara ram; if the plant
is tabernae montana, tagaraka tabernae m ntana; rebus: tagara tin. The seal shows an artisanmerchant who has a smelter to produce tin ingots.
Antelope: m goat (Br.) Rebus: meha, mehi merchants clerk; (G.)
meho one who helps a merchant vi.138 vaiksahyah (dei.
Hemachandra). cf. *meluhha-m h > mleccha-mukha copper (ingot).
Chanhu-daro23 6402

37

Goat-antelope with a short tail; double-axe shown in front of antelope. Chanhu-daro is called the
Sheffield of ancient India by the excavator, Ernest Mackay. This observation can be related to
harosheth hagoyim [cognate: kharo goy (Meluhha/mleccha) smithy of nations.
[A clear semantic intimation that the lexemes with root: kol- relate to a guard accompanying treasure
into or guarding treasure a state treasury is provided by the Telugu lexeme: golla, a trustworthy
employee in public treasuries.]
An inlay panel of the Great Lyre found in the Kings grave of Ur. The head, face and horns are gold
foil wrapped over a wooden form. The hair and beard are lapis lazuli, as are the eyes, inlaid into shell.
The front panel is shell inlaid in bitumen. The occurrence of glyphs of a buffalo or a ficus religiosa
motif on Near East cylinder seal impression are too vivid to be brushed away as mere coincidences.
There WAS interaction among the neighboring civilization areas as bronze-age trade blossomed and
created the framework for an industrial revolution. As hieroglyphs were absorbed the way the
languages in the Indian linguistic area absorbed from one another linguistic features and made them
their own, it is not unlikely that the underlyings sounds of speech related to such common hieroglyphs
should relate to substrata words of contact areas or explained by the attested presence of Meluhhan
colonies or settlements in areas inhabited by non-Meluhhan speakers. It is possible that lexemes of
Meluhha are also attested in the as yet undeciphered Proto-Elamite writing system. This is a
speculative statement and needs further investigation.

38

On the hieroglyphs of this top register, a goat or ram walks towards a pair of reeds ligatured with
scarfs. Two large storage jars contain ingots. (That these relate to metal is indicated by the phonetic
determinant of a bulls head dangar bull; danger blacksmith). The Uruk (Warka) vase with its
hieroglyphs comparable to Indian hieroglyphs and the identification of a few substratum Meluhha
words in Sumerian is a pointer to this possibility of Meluhhan presence and influence. Source of
image: The Warka Vase or the Uruk Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple
complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern
Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Like the Narmer Palette from Egypt, it is one of the
earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture, dated to c. 3,2003000 BC. The vase was
discovered as a collection of fragments by German Assyriologists in their sixth excavation season at
Uruk in 1933/1934. It is named after the modern village of Warka - known as Uruk to the ancient
Sumerians. http://arthistorypart1.blogspot.in/2011/01/sumerian-art-warka-vase.html cf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warka_Vase

Clay impression of cylinder seal. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uruk3000BCE.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cylinder_seal_lions_Louvre_MNB1167_n2.jpg Uruk cylinder seal of
jasper. Mesopotamia, Uruk Period (4100 BCE to 3000 BCE). Louvre AN MNB 1167. Depicts a tigerheaded eagle with wings, a goats body, ligatured to tiger-heads at the end of snakes hoods. Tail is
also like a snake.
urga m. snake P. [ras -- , ga -- ]Pa. uraga -- m., Si. ur.(CDIAL 2348). png, s.m.
(5th) A tiger, a panther. Pl. pngn; s.f. (3rd) pngah. Pl. pngey.
(Pushto).

39

r f. ewe RV. [Cf. urabhra -- m. ram Sur., Pa. Pk. urabbha -- m.] H. ul f. lamb . (CDIAL
2352). raa m. ram, sheep, young ram Br. [r -- ]Pk. raa -- m., -- f.; Tir. urni sheep ;
Sh. r m. lamb , r m. wild sheep ; L. khet. rn m. lamb , WPah. kha. urn m.,
n f.(CDIAL 2349). wraey, s.m. (1st) A lamb. Pl. .

( Pushto). warg, adj. A three-

year old (ram or goat); (Fem.) wargah, A three-year old (ewe or she-goat). Sheep and goats
above this age are termed ar-warg and ar-wargah. See

and

warg, s.m. The fleece of a sheep. Pl. wargnah. (HG Ravertys Pushto, Pukhto
Dictionary). vra n. (rarely m.) sheep's wool (as sieve) RV. [IE. er -- WP i 270?] Wg. warak
wool , Pr. wrik, Dm. br (not ac. to NTS xii 160 conn. with vra -- or varaka)(CDIAL 11549).
Allograph: vraka m. obstacle MBh., vra -- m. door, gate-way lex. [ vr] Pk. vraya --
obstructing ; Ku. br m. abstinence (esp. from food) ; -- Pr. warek house NTS xv 276 (through
door cf. OMarw. braa doorstep < vraa -- 2)(CDIAL 11550). [Note: the pair of reeds with
scarfs may be hieroglyphs which denote: dhau scarf vra d

r = dhatu warek mineral house.]

Allograph: Ta. varaku common millet, Paspalum scrobiculatum; poor man's millet, P. crusgalli.
Ma. varaku P. frumentaceum; a grass Panicum. Ka. baraga, baragu P. frumentaceum; Indian millet; a
kind of hill grass of which writing pens are made. Te. varaga, (Inscr.) varuvu Panicum miliaceum. / Cf.
Mar. barag millet, P. miliaceum; Skt. varuka- a kind of inferior grain. [Paspalum scrobiculatum Linn.
= P. frumentaceum Rottb. P. crusgalli is not identified in Hooker.](DEDR 5260).
Ta. uruku (uruki-) to dissolve (intr.) with heat, melt, liquefy, be fused, become tender, melt (as the
heart), be kind, glow with love, be emaciated; urukku (urukki-) to melt (tr.) with heat (as metals or
congealed substances), dissolve, liquefy, fuse, soften (as feelings), reduce, emaciate (as the body),
destroy; n. steel, anything melted, product of liquefaction; urukkam melting of heart, tenderness,
compassion, love (as to a deity, friend, or child); urukkiam that which facilitates the fusion of metals
(as borax). Ma.urukuka to melt, dissolve, be softened; urukkuka to melt (tr.); urukkam melting,
anguish; urukku what is melted, fused metal, steel. Ko. uk steel. Ka. urku, ukku id. Ko.ur- (uri-) to
melt (intr.); urk- (urki-) id. (tr.); ukk steel. Te. ukku id. Go. (Mu.) ur-, (Ko.) ui- to be melted,
dissolved; tr. (Mu.) urih-/urh- (Voc. 262). Kona (BB)rg- to melt, dissolve. Kui ra (ri-) to be
dissolved; pl. action rka (rki-); rga (rgi-) to be dissolved. Kuwi (.) ry- to be dissolved;
(S.) rkhnai to smelt; (Isr.) uku, (S.) ukku steel. (DEDR 661).
Uruk is Arabic: , Wark'. Aramaic: Erech; Hebrew:Erech; Greek: Orch , rugeia ). Uruk
participated in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid 4th millennium BCE. (Harmansah, mr (2007-12-03). "The
Archaeology of Mesopotamia: Ceremonial centers, urbanization and state formation in Southern Mesopotamia"

http://proteus.brown.edu/mesopotamianarchaeology/699 ).

40

It is possible that the town with early settlers of the 4th millennium BCE was derived from warga
three-year old ram or goat (Pushto).
See Annex A Images of antelope species occurring on cylinder seals and other artifacts of ancient
Near East and Indus script corpora.
See Annex B Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph: association with veneration of ancestors, sacredness
[This annex evidences the presence of trefoil hieroglyph in Uruk (Near East) artifacts and in Indus
(Sarasvati) civilization artifacts.]
Bun-shaped copper ingots
"... circular bun-shaped ingots found on third- to second-millennium sites in Oman (Hauptmann et al.
1988: 41, fig. 4:6), which indicate that this was the shape in which at least some Omani copper was
traded in the Near East at this time. It may, however, have been the standard for many other source
zones. A group of five circular bun-shaped ingots of copper were included in the mid-third-millennium
BC 'Vase a la Cachette' excavated at Susa. They have been associated with ingots of this shape found
in the Gulf and in Indus Valley settlements (Tallon 1987: nos. 687-92, pls. 262-4). Two bun-shaped
ingots were found in a contemporary context at Tell Chuera in Syria (Moortgat and Moortgat-Correns
1978: 66ff., fig. 29a-b).(Moorey, 1994, opcit, p. 244).

The context of the images inscribed on the Warka Vase is the assemblage of building materials, in
particular ingots carried on baskets by workers and stored in large jars. Two hieroglyph compositions
are noteworthy on the top right-hand corner of the two-dimensional spread-out of the images on top
register of the vase: An antelope followed by a tiger are shown, which can be posited as phonetic
determinants of the two bun-shaped ingots (out of a furnace or altar) shown just below the animals.
What language of the artisans explains these hieroglyphs of antelope + tiger in the overall context of
the narratives of the Warka Vase? Meluhha.
A pair of reeds on the top register approached by the antelope and tiger: hieroglyph: B. khg, khg
reed for pens , Or. khaga the reed Saccharum spontaneum; rebus: k gar portable brazier
(Kashmiri) dula pair; rebus: dul cast (metal). The bearers of tin bun ingots are reaching the minerals
for metalwork using braziers.
The ingots are of tagara tin. Hence, the procession of antelopes on the penultimate register at the
bottom of the vase: gar horned cattle (K.)

41

The smith is shown by the horned antelope, red rebus: gar horned cattle (K.); rebus: gar
blacksmith (H.) > damgar merchant, trader(Sumerian). The metal worker is shown by the tiger:
klu tiger; rebus: kol, golla working in iron (metal), furnace; custodian of treasure.
Hieroglyph: klupuli = Bengal tiger (Te.)Pk. kolhuya -- , kulha m. jackal < khu -- ; H.kolh,
l m. jackal, adj. crafty ; G. kohl , l n. jackal, M. kolh, l m. kr crying BhP., m.
jackal RV. = kru m. P. [ kru] Pa. kohu -- , uka and kotthu -- , uka m. jackal, Pk.
kohu m.; Si. koa jackal, koiya leopard GS 42 (CDIAL 3615).

[ klh ]

[ klh ]

A jackal (Marathi)
Rebus:

kolla, n. < T. golla. Custodian of treasure;

Kolel smithy, temple in Kota village.

. (P. T. L.)

kol Working in iron;

. Blacksmith;

. (Tamil) kol furnace, forge (Kuwi) kol alloy of five metals, pacaloha (Ta.)
Ta. kol working in iron, lacksmith; kolla blacksmith. Ma. kollan blacksmith,
artificer. Ko. kolel smithy, temple in Kota village. To. kwalal Kota smithy. Ka.kolime, kolume,
kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme fire-pit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith;
(Gowda) kolla id. Ko. koll blacksmith. Te. kolimi furnace. Go.(SR.) kollusn to mend
implements; (Ph.) kolstn, kulsn to forge; (Tr.) klstn to repair (of ploughshares);
(SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge (DEDR 2133).

The two registers at the bottom of the Warka Vase depict a procession of antelopes/goats and an array
of tabernae montana plants (bifurcated stalks?) which have
vivid parallels on Indus script hieroglyphs of the earliest
period of evolution of Indus writing.

BM 121157; Early Dynastic Period cylinder seal impression;

Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Pl. 23a; Two registers: file of goats; Jamdat
Nasr period? Red marble.

42

BM 102418; Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Pl. 23b; Above: scorpion, goat, bull with lizard (gharial?) on back.
Below: goat couchant between goats walking. In field: pot,crescent moon. Jamdat-Nasr-Early
Dynastic? Red marble.
Mohenjodaro;
limestone; Mackay,
1938, p. 344, Pl.
LXXXIX:376.

BM 122560; Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Pl. 23c; Ur (U.11868); UE II, p. 575, pl. 203, 131; Lapis lazuli;
Two registers: goats in file.

BM 89035; Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Pl. 14d; Hero holds lion and bull, a goat (?) crossed lion and goat
held by bearded hero. Legend (directly cut): MUS'EN GAN. Translucent white marble (worn).

BM 104487; Wiseman, opcit, 1962,

Pl.14f; Crossed goats attacked

by lion itself grasped by bull man;

hero with curled hair holds two

goats; Legend: AL?-a-den?-lil.

Marble.

Jamdat Nasr, Proto-Elamite type cylinder seal; BM 116720; Animal file; bulls, goats. In field: plants,
'cross'; Frit; cf. Iraq XIX, 1957, p. 107, fig. 24 (Susa
Cc). D. J. Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Plate 7a.

Jamdat Nasr, Proto-Elamite type cylinder seal; BM 128862; Bulls.

In field: twin rhomb or 'fly'; grey steatite; Wiseman, Cylinder
Seals, 13 (Early Dynastic I); Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Plate 7b.

43

Jamdat Nasr, Proto-Elamite type cylinder seal; BM 119306; Two goats. In field: cross, circled dots;
Steatite; BMQ III, 1929, p. 13, pl. IV (Suss-Jamdat Nasr-Early Dynastic I period); Wiseman, opcit,
1962, Plate 7e.
Uruk Period; BM 102427; Above: Tethered
bull,three dots above back; scorpion, bearded man
chases bull. Below: man with bucket watchesn
fallen animal (?). Man protects goat from leopard
(lion? contest scene?). Probably recut Early
Dynastic period, authenticity questioned; Gypsum
(worn); D.J.Wiseman, opcit, 1962, Pl. 1d.

Meadow: The earliest (Indus) inscriptions date back to 3500 BC.

h1522A sherd. Slide 124. Inscribed Ravi sherd. The origins of Indus writing can now be traced to the
Ravi Phase (c. 3300-2800 BCE) at Harappa. Some inscriptions were made on the bottom of the pottery
before firing. Other inscriptions such as this one were made after firing. This inscription (c. 3300 BCE)
appears to be three plant symbols arranged to appear almost anthropomorphic. The trident looking
projections on these symbols seem to set the foundation for later symbols such as those seen in 131
(shown below).
Slide 131. Inscribed sherd, Kot Dijian Phase. This sign was carved onto the pottery vessel after it was
fired and may indicate the type of goods being stored in the vessel or the owner of the vessel
itselfThis symbol becomes very common in the later Indus script.
The glyph is tabernae Montana, mountain tulip.
Glyph, tabernae montana

44

A soft-stone flask, 6 cm. tall, from Bactria (northern Afghanistan) showing a winged female deity (?)
flanked by two flowers similar to those shown on the comb from Tell Abraq.(After Pottier, M.H.,
1984, Materiel funeraire e la Bactriane meridionale de l'Age du Bronze, Paris, Editions Recherche sur
les Civilisations: plate 20.150)

Ivory comb with Mountain Tulip motif and dotted circles. TA 1649 Tell Abraq.(D.T. Potts, South and
Central Asian elements at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain, United Arab Emirates), c. 2200
BCAD 400, in Asko Parpola and Petteri Koskikallio, South Asian Archaeology 1993: , pp. 615-666).

Tell Abraq axe with epigraph (tulip glyph + a person raising his arm above his shoulder and wielding
a tool + dotted circles on body) [After Fig. 7 Holly Pittman, 1984, Art of the Bronze Age: Southeastern
Iran, Western Central Asia, and the Indus Valley, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp.
29-30].
Two Mohenjo-daro tablets inscribes three glyphs carried on shoulders in a procession; one of the
objects carried looks very much like the standard device carved in front of the one-horned heifer.
[Mohenjo-daro. Terracotta tablet. After Marshall 1931, Pl. CXVIII,9]. The carriers of the glyphs have
upraised arms: eaka 'upraised arm' (Ta.); rebus: eraka = copper (Ka.)
Standard device often shown in front of a one-horned heifer [read rebus as sgaa that member of a
turner's apparatus by which the piece to be turned is confined and steadied To take into
linked-ness or close connection with, lit. fig. (Marathi); rebus: sangho cutting stone, gilding
(Gujarati)]
me body (M.); Rebus: meh helper of merchant (Pkt.)

45

tagar = a flowering shrub; a plant in bloom (G.lex.) tagara = the shrub tabernaemontana coronaria, and
a fragrant powder or perfume obtained from it, incense (Vin 1.203); tagara-mallika_ two kinds of
gandha_ (P.lex.) agara (tagara) a spec. plant; fragrant wood (Pkt.Skt.) tagara = a kind of flowering tree
(Te.lex.) This is a flower, tagaraka, used as a hair-fragrance (Skt.) and hence is also depicted on a
bonecomb. Signs, 162, 163, 169 sign variants. Rebus: takaram tin (Ta.) Thus the set of glyphics
carved on the Tell Abraq axe can be read rebus: tagara eraka khaaran (out of) tin copper furnace,
a description of the ingredients of the bronze alloy used to produce the axe.
Glyphic element thorny, thorn: ran:ga ron:ga, ran:ga con:ga = thorny, spikey, armed with thorns; edel
dare ran:ga con:ga dareka = this cotton tree grows with spikes on it (Santali)
Rebus: tagromi 'tin, metal alloy' (Kuwi) takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin (Ta.); tin,
tinned iron plate (Ma.); tagarm tin (Ko.); tagara, tamara, tavara id. (Ka.) tamaru, tamara, tavara id.
(Ta.): tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. (Te.); agromi tin metal, alloy (Kuwi); tamara id.
(Skt.)(DEDR 3001). trapu tin (AV.); tipu (Pali); tau, taua lead (Pkt.); t _ tin (P.); au zinc, pewter
(Or.); taraum lead (OG.); tarvu~ (G.); tumba lead (Si.)(CDIAL 5992).
Glyph: akkar f. blow on the head Rjat. [Cf. akk -- 2] Pk. akkara -- m. collision , K. akara
m.; S. akaru m. knocking the head against anything, butting , akirau to knock against, encounter,
be compared with ; L. akkara to meet, agree ; P. akkar f. pushing, knocking , akkar to
collide, meet ; Ku. akkar shock, jerk, loss ; N. akar obstacle, collision ; B. akkar blow , Or.
akkara, kara, H. G. M. akkar f. (CDIAL 6701)

takarr , n. < Arab. takrar. Colloq. 1.

Altercation, objection. akkar -- : S.kcch. akr to collide , G. akrv AK 37. dhakk push,
strike . [dhakkayati annihilates Dhtup.]K. daka m. a push, blow , S. dhaku m., L. P. dhakk m.;
Ku. dhakk collision , dh k forcibly pushing ; N. dhakk collision, push ; B. dhakk push ,
Or. dhak; H. dhak m. shock, sudden terror , dhakk m. push ; OMarw. dhak -- dhak f. rush ;
G. dhakk m. push , M. dhak, hak m.; -- P. dhakk to push, oust ; -- S. dhakiau to half -clean rice by beating it in a mortar ; -- Ku. dhakelo to push , N. dhakelnu, H. dhakeln, ha, G.
dhakelv . *dhakk -- : S.kcch. dhakko eo to push ; WPah.kg. dhkk m. push, dash , J. dhk
m.(CDIAL 5424). L. akka, (Ju.) a to stop, obstruct ; P. akk to block up, hinder , akk m.
hindrance , akk m. plug . (CDIAL 5518). Ka. (Jenu Kuruba, LSB 4.12) dku, (HavS.) dku,
(Bark.) dki, (Coorg) dku to push (or with 3722 Ta. nkku). Kur. tukkn to give a push to, shove.
Malt. tuke to push, remove. (DEDR 3286) Ka. tagalu, tagilu, tagulu to come in contact with, touch;
taguisu to chase, drive away; Te. tagulucu to cause to touch; taguluu, taguludala touching, contact,
catching, addictedness; taguluvau to be caught, seized, or entangled.
Kona tagli (-t-) to touch, hit. (DEDR 3004)

46

Ta. takai (-v-, -nt-) to stop, resist, check, deter, obstruct or forbid by oath, seize, take hold of,
overpower, subdue, shut in, enclose, include, bind, fasten, yoke; (-pp-, -tt-) to check, resist, stop, deter,
bind, fasten; n. binding, fastening, garland, obstruction, check, hindrance, armour, coat of mail;
takaippu surrounding wall, fortress, palatial building, section of house, apartment, battle array of an
army. Ka. taga, tagave, tagahu, tage delay, obstacle, hindrance, impediment; tage to stop, arrest,
obstruct, impede, stun; tagar to be stopped or impeded, impede, etc. (DEDR 3006).

Ewe and Ram Flanking Plant with a Gatepost. Cylinder seal and impression. Mesopotamia, Late Uruk
period (ca.35003100 B.C.E.). Serpentine. 16 x 13 mm. Seal no. 5
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=612 Sheep and goats above three-years of
age are termed ar-warg and ar-wargah (Pushto). The reed as representing a
gateway: vra -- m. door, gate-way; warek house. [Pr. Prasun (Kafiri)] (CDIAL 11550). Read
rebus: ar-warek blacksmith-house.[The tree hieroglyph between the goat/ram is: kui tree rebus:
kuhi smelter, furnace (Santali). The reed hieroglyph: B. khg, khg reed for pens , Or. khaga
the reed Saccharum spontaneum; rebus: k gar portable brazier (Kashmiri)] Scarf is ligatured to the
reed post. dhau scarf (WPah.); rebus: dhatu mineral (Santali) The hieroglyph tree: kui tree; kuhi
smelter/furnace (Santali).
Allograph: Ta. takar sheep, ram, goat, male of certain other animals (yi, elephant, shark).
(

, 486).Ma. takaran huge, powerful as a

man, bear, etc. Ka. tagar, agaru, agara, egaru ram. Tu. tagaru, agar id. Te. tagaramu, tagaru id. /
Cf. Marathi. tagar id. (DEDR 3000). egaru ram (Ka.) The hieroglyph and cognate lexeme of Indian
sprachbund is a substrate Sumerian gloss meaning merchant. [Synonyms existed in Indian
sprachbund to describe/depict various forms of antelope or ram which will be elaborated in the next
section.]
I suggest that Sumerian tamkru merchant is a rebus reading of the hieroglyph antelope agar
(Tulu). A cognate lexeme is

[akr] maker of (stone) handmills or joiner(Indian sprachbund).

Allograph: agara1 squinting lex. [Cf. raka -- ] H. agr cross -- eyed (CDIAL 5425).

47

Cognate with tamkru (Sumerian) is

worker in stone:

or

[akr] maker of (stone) handmills or joiner. Rebus 1:

[ akr or akr ] m (

workers in stone, makers of handmills &c.

) A caste or an individual of it. They are

[ akal ] f (S) pop.

or

fA

mint. aka1 m.n. weight of 4 mas rgS., a stamped coin Hit., aka -- m. a silver coin lex. 2.
aga -- 1 m.n. weight of 4 mas lex. 3. akka -- 1. [Bloch IA 59 Tatar tanka (Khot. tanka =
krpaa S. Konow Saka Studies 184)]1. Pk. aka -- m. a stamped coin; H. k m. a partic.
weight; G. k f. a partic. weight equivalent to 1/72 ser; M. k m. a partic. weight.2. H. ag m. a
coin worth 2 pais. P. ak m. a copper coin; Ku. k two pais ; N. ako money ; A. ak
rupee , B. k; Mth. ak, akk, akw money, Bhoj. k; H. ak m. two pais coin, G. ak m.,
M. ak (CDIAL 5426). aka2 m.n. spade, hoe, chisel R. 2. aga -- 2 m.n. sword, spade lex. 1. Pa.
aka -- m. stone mason's chisel; Pk. aka -- m. stone -- chisel, sword; Wo. h axe ; Bshk. ho
battleaxe, he small axe (< ak); Tor. (Biddulph) "tunger" m. axe (? AO viii 310), Phal.
hgi f.; K. nguru m. a kind of hoe; N. (Tarai) gi adze; H. k f. chisel; G. k f. pen nib;
M. k m. pen nib , k f. chisel.2. A. gi stone chisel; B. g, gi spade, axe; Or. gi
battle-axe; Bi. g, g adze; Bhoj. axe; H. g f. hatchet.(CDIAL 5427). akati2
chisels. [aka -- 2] Pa. akita -- maca -- a stone (i.e. chiselled) platform ; G. kv to chisel, M.
k. (CDIAL 5433).akal -- , akaka f. mint lex. [aka -- 1, l -- ] N. aksl, r, B.
ksl, k, ek, Bhoj. aksr, H. aksl, r f., G. ks f., M. ksl, k, k, ak. -- Deriv. G.
aks m. mint-master, M. ksy m. akal -- : Brj. aks, sr m. mint-master.(CDIAL
5434).
Rebus 2: soldering (work of a joiner): kati1, akyati ties Dhtup. 2. acati.1. S. kau to
stitch, ko m. a stitch; Ku. ko sewing, joining, patch; N. knu to join, tack, button up, ko
stitch, seam; A. kiba to tie loosely; B. k to stitch, Or. kib, k hand -- stitching; Bhoj.
kal to sew; H. kn to stitch, join, rivet, solder, k m. stitch, join; G. kv to stitch, k m.,
M. k, k m.2. G. cv to stitch, c f. small pin; M. , to sew lightly, , f.
pin.
Wild tulip motif

48

Wild tulip is a motif that occurs on southeast Iranian cylinder seals and on Persian Gulf seals. 1st row:
Bactrian artifacts; 2nd row: a comb from the Gulf area and late trans-Elamite seals [After MarieHelene Pottier, 1984, Materiel funeraire de la Bactriane meridionale de lage du bronze, Recherche sur
les Civilizations, Memoire 36, Paris, fig. 21; Sarianidi, V.I., 1986, Le complexe culturel de Togolok 21
en Margiane, Arts Asiatiques 41: fig. 6,21; Potts, 1994, fig. 53,8; Amiet, 1986, fig. 132]. Bone comb
with Mountain Tulip motif and dotted circles. TA 1649 Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates. Ivory comb
with Mountain Tulip motif and dotted circles. TA 1649 Tell Abraq. [D.T. Potts, South and Central
Asian elements at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain, United Arab Emirates), c. 2200 BCAD
400, in Asko Parpola and Petteri Koskikallio, South Asian Archaeology 1993: , pp. 615-666] The
ivory comb found at Tell Abraq measures 11 X 8.2 X .4 cm. Both sides of the comb bear identical,
incised decoration in the form of two long-stemmed flowers with crenate or dentate leaves, flanking
three dotted circles arranged in a triangular pattern. Bone and ivory combs with dotted-circle
decoration are well-known in the Harappan area (e.g. at Chanhu-daro and Mohenjo-daro), but none of
the Harappan combs bear the distinctive floral motif of the Tell Abraq comb. These flowers are
identified as tulips, perhaps Mountain tulip or Boeotian tulip (both of which grow in Afghanistan)
which have an undulate leaf. There is a possibility that the comb is an import from Bactria, perhaps
transmitted through Meluhha to the Oman Peninsula site of Tell Abraq.
Indus script sign variants show such a five-petalled tulip, a glyph on the Early Harappan Ravi phase
potsherd h1522A (with five petals as in tabernae montana, tagaraka). The variants are stylized as
Sign 162 (with three prongs) and Sign 165 (with five petals). Sign 167 shows five petals (and variants
show many more branches or petals (and somet times less number of petals):
Variants of Sign 169 (One possibility is that the scribe chose to represent two distinct rebus readings:
Sign 162 with three petals to be read as kolmo paddy plant; and Sign 169 with five petals to be read
as tagaraka tabernae montana wild tulip.

Seal impression from Harappa (Kenoyer,

1998); a woman is carrying a three-petalled flower.
If a thre-petalled glyph is a variant of the tulip five-petalled glyph, the following occurrences
including the seal of Altyn Tepe have to be viewed as a representation of tin mineral and not tht of
a kolmo paddy-plant, but tagaraka, tabernae montana. The sign also is ligatured to form other
signs:

h337, h338 Texts 4417, 4426 (les on leafshaped tablets)

49

I suggest that the word associated with this glyph is tagaraka, tabernae montana. Rebus: tagara tin
(Ka.); tamara id. (Skt.) Allograph: agara ram. Since tagaraka is used as an aromatic unguent for the
hair, fragrance, the glyph gets depicted on an ivory comb of Tell Abraq. The semant. tin may explain
why a ram (or goat) is ligatured to a fish glyph. Tin alloyed with copper mineral yields bronze: aya
fish. Rebus: aya metal.+ agara ram. Rebus: tagara tin yields bronze. Hence, the celebration
and documenting the ligatured goat-fish on the Susa limestone vat.
Hieroglyphs on Susa limestone vat

Susa, limestone vat, Middle Elamite period (c. 1500 BC 1100 BCE). Louvre Musuem. Susa ritual
basin decorated with goatfish figures, molluscs, reeds all these are interpretable as hieroglyphs. A
combination of a markhors horns + fish occurs on a copper anthropomorph of Sheorajpur, Uttar
Pradesh, India.
A copper anthropomorph had a fish glyph incised. Anthropomorph with fish sign incised on the
chest and with curved arms like the horns of a markhor. Sheorajpur (Kanpur Dist., UP, India). State
Museum, Lucknow (O.37) Typical find of Gangetic Copper Hoards. 47.7 X 39 X 2.1 cm. C. 4 kg.
Early 2nd millennium BCE. Tagara ram + ayo fish; rebus: tagara tin, ayo metal (perhaps bronze
formed by alloying copper mineral with tin mineral).
Susa and the interaction area of Near East and Indus script
corpora

50

Susa pot, from Meluhha, with metal artifacts. The pot has an inscription, painted
with fish hieroglyph. (Images courtesy: Maurizio Tosi in an international
conference in New Delhi, November 2010 organised by Draupati Trust).
Source of image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk
Following Benno Landsberger, it is agreed that there
are words from the fields of agriculture, artisanry, etc.
which are from a language or languages used in the
upper Mesopotmian area before the arrival of
Sumerians. Examples often cited are: engar > ikkaru
farmer; apin plough; absin furrow; agab leather
worker; nangar > naggaru carpenter; damgar >
danger> taggaru merchant-agent; simug smith
(metal-sculptor); ibira, tibira coppersmith; sanga
priest.

Such words entered the regions surrounding Mesopotamia and later Aramaic. (Greenfield, Jonas C.,
2001, Al Kenganfei Yonah: collected studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic philology, edited by
Shalom Paul, Michael E. Stone, and Avital Pinnick, Jerusalem, The Hebrew University Magness
Press, p.156)
Sumerian lexicon, version 3.0 (by John A. Halloran) explains sanga as a sprinkler, used for ritual
cleaning; economic director of a temple or occupation (such as all the smiths)(sag head + gar, ga to
store). The semantics of ritual cleaning may explain the presence of the allograph aquatic mollusc
on the Susa ritual basin: khika relating to a shell W. 2. khin -- (akhin -- f. mother -- of -pearl Blar.). [akh -- 1] 1. K. hngi snail; B. s kh possessing or made of shells. 2. K. h gi f.
pearl oyster shell, shell of any aquatic mollusc.(CDIAL 12380). Hieroglyph of reed can also be
explained: B. khg, khg reed for pens , Or. khaga the reed Saccharum spontaneum.
Allograph: Pk. khaggi -- rhinoceros.(CDIAL 3786). Rebus: k gar portable brazier (Kashmiri) The
semantics of Sumerian sanga (sag head + ga to store) are echoed in the hieroglyph of sangaa
lathe/portable furnace, a standard device often shown in front of the one-horned young bull with
rings on neck and a pannier on shoulder. The rebus reading for jangaa products entrusted for
approval; janga courier (G.M.); jangaiyo military guard accompanying treasure into the treasury
(G.) explain the Sumerian semantics of head storage for the lexeme sanga.

51

This use of lexemes from Indian sprachbund, to explain the rebus readings of hieroglyphs, clearly
assumes the presence of artisans/traders who are speakers of Meluhha (cognate mleccha) in
Susa/Sumer/Elam.
Harappa. h226B, h227B Tablets. Standard devices (lathes-gimlets/furnaces) shown flanked with
circles (representing ingots)
The acculturation of Meluhhans (probably, Indus people) residing in Mesopotamia in the late third and
early second millennium BC, is noted by their adoption of Sumerian names (Parpola, Parpola and
Brunswig 1977: 155-159). "The adaptation of Harappan motifs and script to the Dilmun seal form may
be a further indication of the acculturative phenomenon, one indicated in Mesopotamia by the
adaptation of Harappan traits to the cylinder seal." (Brunswig et al, 1983, p. 110).

For the trade with Mesopotamia there is both literary and archaeological evidence. The Harappan seals
were evidently used to seal bundles of merchandise, as clay seal impressions with cord or sack marks
on the reverse side testify. The presence of a number of Indus seals at Ur and other Mesopotamian
cities and the discovery of a "Persian Gulf" type of seal at Lothal--otherwise known from the Persian
Gulf ports of Bahrain (ancient Dilmun, or Telmun) and Faylahkah, as well as from Mesopotamia-provide convincing corroboration of the sea trade suggested by the Lothal dock. Timber and precious
woods, ivory, lapis lazuli, gold, and luxury goods such as carnelian beads, pearls, and shell and bone
inlays, including the distinctly Indian kidney shape, were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia in
exchange for silver, tin, woolen textiles, and grains and other foods. Copper ingots appear to have been
imported to Lothal from Magan (possibly Oman, the Mahran region, or southeastern Iran). Other
possible trade items include products originating exclusively in each respective region, such as
bitumen, occurring naturally in Mesopotamia; and cotton textiles and chickens, major products of the
Indus region not native to Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamian trade with Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha
Products imported into Ur

Products imported into Ur

Products imported into Ur

from Dilmun

from Magan

from Meluhha

Late third and early second

millennium BC

Mid-third to mid-second
Late third millennium BC

lapis lazuli

millennium BC
Timber and wooden

cornelian

furniture

semi-precious stones

timber and wooden objects

Copper

ivory and ivory objects

a type of onion (?)

Gold dust

52

copper

copper

Lapis lazuli

silver

ivory

Cornelian

fish-eyes

gold dust

Birds (including peacock)

red gold

cornelian

Multi-coloured ivory birds

white corals

semi-precious stones

Cornelian monkey

various woods

diorite

Red dog

dates

red ochre
goats

[Except for the dates and

(Ratnagar, 1981: 66ff.)

fish-eyes, all the

[Cornelian and ivory were

Texts refer to it as the land

commodities came to

being shipped from further

of seafarers.

Dilmun from elsewhere for

east; copper and diorite

onward shipment; cf.

were local].

Tilmun: Edzard et al., 1977,

Akkadian kings claimed to

p. 157-8; Groneberg, 1980:

have campaigned in Magan

237).

and taken boody. (Potts, D.,

1986).

(P.R.S. Moorey, 1994, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries, Oxford, Clarendon Press.)
A good example of contact between Kish and
Meluhha (Indus script corpora area) is provided by
two seals with identical texts from (a) Kish (IM 1822);
cf. Mackay 1925 and (b) Mohenjodaro (M-228); cf.
Parpola, 1994, p. 132.

53

A copper blade (Marshall 1931: pl. 136, f.3) found in one of the upper levels, though termed a spearblade, may conceivably have been a knife (Plate IX, no.1). An exactly similar blade, but with a slightly
longer tang, was found in the A mound at Kish (Mackay 1929a: pl. 39, gp. 3, f.4)... attention should be
called to a steatite seal from Kish, now in Baghdad Museum, which bears the svastika symbol. This
seal, both in shape and design upon it, exactly resembles the little square seals of steatite and glazed
paste that are so frequently found at Mohenjodaro (Marshall 1931: pl. 144, f. 507-15). I do not think
that I err in regarding the Kish example, which was found by Watelin, as either of Indian workmanship
or made locally for an Indian resident in Sumer... The curious perforated vessels shown (Marshall
1931: pl. 84, f. 3-18) are very closely allied to perforated vessels found at Kish (Mackay 1929a: pl. 54,
f. 36), especially in the fact that besides the numerous holes in the sides there is also a large hole in the
base, which suggests that by this means they were supported on a rod or something similar... I have
suggested, from evidence obtained by Sir Aurel Stein in southern Baluchistan, that these perforated
vessels were used as heaters...(E.J.H.Mackay, Further links between ancient Sind, Sumer and
elsewhere, Antiquity, Vol. 5, 1931, pp. 459-473).
"The land of Melukkha shall bring carnelian, desirable and precious, sissoo-wood from Magan,
excellent mangroves, on big-ships!" said a statement in the Sumerian myth, Enki and Ninkhursag (cf.
lines 1-9, trans. B. Alster). "In the late Early Dynastic period (about 2500), Ur-Nanshe, king of the
Sumerian city-state Lagash, "had ships of Dilmun transport timber from foreign lands" to his capital
(modern Tell al-Hiba), just as a later governor of Lagash, named Gudea, did in the mid-twenty-first
century. In the early twenty-fourth century, Lugalbanda and Urukagina, two kings of Lagash, imported
copper from Dilmun and paid for it with wool, silver, fat, and various milk and cereal products... That
these (round stamp) seals were used in economic transactions is proven by the discovery of two
important tablets bearing their impressions. One of these tablets was found at Susa, and dates to the
first half of the second millennium. It is a receipt for goods, including ten minas of copper (about
eleven pounds or five kilograms).
The second tablet, in the Yale Babylonian Collection, is dated to the tenth year of Gungunum of Larsa
(modern Tell Senkereh), that is, around 1925, and records a consignment of goods (wool, wheat, and
sesame) prior to a trading voyage that almost certainly had Dilmun as its goal. Dilmun seals
characteristically depict two men drinking what could be beer through straws, or two or three prancing
gazelles...a merchant named Ea-nasir, who is identified as one of the a_lik Tilmun, or "Dilmun
traders"...

54

Ea-nasir paid for Dilmun copper with the textiles and silver that he received from the great NannaNingal temple complex at Ur...The Mari texts contain several references to Dilmunite
caravans...Melukkha was a source of wood (including a black wood thought to have been ebony), gold,
ivory, and carnelian...Melukkha was accessible by sea...Sargon of Akkad...boasts that ships from
Dilmun, Magan and Melukkha docked at the quay of his capital Akkad...While points of contact with
other regions are attested, they can hardly have accounted for the strength and individuality of
civilization in the subcontinent..
.Unmistakably Harappan cubical weights of banded chert (based on a unit of 13.63 grams) are known
from a number of sites located around the perimeter of the Arabian GUlf, including Susa, Qalat alBahrain, Shimal (Ras al-Khaimah), and Tell Abraq (Umm al-Qaiwain)...an inscribed Harappan shard
has been found at Ras al Junayz... Harappan pottery has been found at several sites throughout Oman
and the United Arab Emirates...
A "Melukkhan village" in the territory of the ancient city-state of Lagash, attested in the thirty-fourth
year of the reign of Shulgi (2060), may have been a settlement of Harappans, if the identification with
the civilization of the Indus Valley is correct...But...there is little evidence of a Sumerian, Akkadian, or
Babylonian presence in the Indus Valley... That the language of Melukkha was unintelligble to an
Akkadian or Sumerian speaker is clearly shown by the fact that, on his cylinder seal, the Akkadian
functionary Shu-ilishu is identified as a "Melukkhan translator"...the word "Melukkha" appears
occasionally as a personal name in cuneiform texts of the Old Akkadian and Ur III periods. "(Potts, D.,
1995, Distant Shores: Ancient Near Eastern Trade, in: Jack M. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the
Ancient Near East, Vol. I, pp. 1451-1463).

Harappan control over the Oman Sea

"Oman peninsula/Makkan lies half way between the two main civilization centres of the third
millennium Middle East: Mesopotamia and the Indus valley... an increasing influence of Harappan
civilization on Eastern Arabia during the last two centuries of the third millennium. This influence
seems to strengthen during the early second millennium where proper Harappan objects are found all
over the Oman peninsula: a cubic stone weight at Shimal, sherds of Harappan storage jars on several
sites including Hili 8 (period III). Maysar and Ra's Al-Junayz bears a Harappan inscription and Tosi
(forth.) has emphasized the importance of this discovery for knowledge of Harappan control over the
Oman Sea." [Serge Cleuziou, Dilmun and Makkan during the third and early second millennia BC,
143-155 in: Shaikha Haya Ali Al Khalifa and Michael Rice (eds.) Bahrain through the ages: the
archaeology, London, KPI, 1986.]
Other glosses in the lexicon:
URUDU ? copper, copper colored? Latvian RUDU- copper colored"; cf. rudra 'red'? (Vedic)

55

simug: metal-sculptor, smith (si4 , 'red', + mug, 'to engrave') [SIMUG archaic frequency: 13].
k-dm:

goldsmith, silversmith, metal worker ('noble metal' + 'to fashion').

k-lu-a: refined silver ('noble metal, silver' + 'to clean' + nominative).

k-sig 17: gold ('noble metal' + 'yellow').
naa, nii [AN.NA]:

tin, pewter (n, 'valuable thing' , + ar;, 'to store').

i nimbar: date-palm (nim, 'to be high' , + bar;bur, 'to release; meal').

http://www.sumerian.org/sumerian.pdf
damgar [MERCHANT] (914x: ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Old Babylonian) wr. damgar3 "merchant, trader" Akk. tamkru [Note: cf. makaarum 'to do business']
ibira [MERCHANT] wr. ibira; ibira2 "merchant, businessman" Akk. tamkru
tibira [SCULPTOR] wr. tibira "sculptor" Akk. qurqurru
Source: The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/epsd/epsd/e878.html
There is a language group which explains damgar as Sumerian substrate. That language group is the
Indian sprachbund which included glosses from Language X + Munda = Meluhha (mleccha).
Conclusions
Antelopes, bulls, lions, eagles (wings) are examples of hieroglyphs deployed in the interaction area of
Ancient Near East and a region of language-speakers who created/used Indus script corpora, now
evidenced by about 6000 inscriptions, in the process of trade in Bronze Age products of artisan guilds.
Some of these hieroglyphs are read rebus. Ancient texts which include the script corpora provide
valuable clues to the languages of the region and advances in metallurgy during the Bronze Age.
Further researches on the 1) evolution of technologies and identification of mines and sources of
minerals and 2) formation and evolution of languages in Indian sprachbund, will advance the studies
related to a civilization with the largest expanse of its times in Eurasia from Haifa (Israel) to Daimabad
(India) described in biblical terms as harosheth hagoyim, smithy of nations.

S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D.
Sarasvati Research Center
April 28, 2012 kalyan97@gmail.com

56

Annex A
Images of antelope species occurring on cylinder seals and other artifacts of ancient Near East
and Indus script corpora

Mitannian seal; ca. 1500-1300 BC; chert; cat. 584; two figures stand grasping a tree between them. In
the field: ball staff, drill hole. Terminal: fish, bull's head, drill hole above recumbent antelope and star.

Mitannian seal; ca. 1500-1300 BC; hematite; cat. 586; a worshipper

presents an antelope to a deity standing on a lion which it holds by a
leash. A nude goddess with hands clasped under her breasts stands
between them. In the field: bird. In the sky: two rosettes. Terminal:
inscription. IS'KUR.MU-u-s.ur = Adad-sum-us.ur
ca. 750-600 BC; chalcedony; cat. 285; a hero in a short kilt stands between two ibexes and graps their
horns. In the field: plant in vase. In the sky: star, crescent.
Source: Beatrice Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals: From the Marcopoli Collection,
Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984.

Worshiper Offering Gazelle to Enthroned Deity Holding Ankh, Winged Sun Disk with Pendant Cobras
Above; two registers behind throne, upper: Ibex Demon and Winged Bull Demon Shouldering Bar
with Suspended Stag, lower: Two Attendants Carrying Bar with Suspended Antelope
Cylinder seal and impression Syria (ca. 18501720 B.C.E.) Hematite 29.5 x 15 mm
Seal no. 910 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=663

57

A Lion-Headed Eagle Grasping Two Mountain

Goats, inscribed. The beautifully incised inscription
on this unique cylinder was incorporated into the
design to frame the composition. It relates that the
seal was created for a man who was a minor
official and scribe of a purification priest of the goddess Shara. This was probably at the ancient
Southern Mesopotamian city of Lagash, where Shara was the consort of the chief god, Ningursu, and
where the lion-headed eagle was a favored image. The delicately worked wings of the majestic lionheaded eagle give the impression that they are spreading open.
Cylinder seal and impression Mesopotamia, Post-Akkadian period (ca. 21542100 B.C.E.) Steatite 30
x 17 mm Seal no. 267 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=195
Hero Grasping Lion Griffin;
Monkey Perched on Tree Flanked
by Ibex and Bird of Prey

Cylinder seal and impression

Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period
(ca.thirteenth century B.C.E.) Chert 15 mm diameter
Seal no. 596 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=645

58

Bearded Hero with Daggers Between Two Ibexes Facing Tree

Cylinder seal and impression
Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period (ca. thirteenth century B.C.E.) Jasper 29 x 12 mm
Seal no. 597 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=646
Hero Spearing Ibex, Second Ibex Jumping Toward Tree on Mountain
Cylinder seal and impression
Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period
(ca. thirteenth century B.C.E.)
Chert 32 x 14.5 mm Seal no. 600 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=648

Hero Attacking Mouflon Cylinder seal

Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period (ca.thirteenth century B.C.E.) Agate 31 x 13 mm Seal no. 599
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=728
Lion Attacking Mouflon
Cylinder seal and impression Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period (ca. 13th century B.C.E.) Banded
agate 28 x 12 mm
Seal no. 602 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=201

59

Lion Attacking Stag Before Tree on Mountain

Cylinder seal and impression Mesopotamia, Middle
Assyrian period (ca. thirteenth century B.C.E.) Chert
30 x 13 mm
Seal no. 603

http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=649

Hero Grasping Bull and Mouflon Menaced by a Lion Attacked by a Second Hero
Cylinder seal and impression Mesopotamia, Early Dynastic II period (ca. 27502600 B.C.E.) Marble
28 x 24 mm
Seal no. 52 http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collections.asp?id=619
Susa. Entwined snakes. Goat. Two persons.
Allograph:

[ mh ] m A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a curl or snarl.(Marathi)

mh ] f (

or H) A female sheep, a newe.

sex.

[ mh ] m (

[ mh ] n (

) A sheep. Without reference to

S through H) A male sheep, a ram or tup. (Marathi) Rebus: me iron

(Ho.Mu.)
Fig. 100; Failaka no. 83 impression; a person flanked by two
bulls, each standing atop a chequered square [Note the
chequered square used as a sign in the Indus Script.]

Fig. 99; Failaka; no. 174 impression; two bull heads emanating from a chequered square [see an Indus
motif of heads of two one-horned bulls emanating from a dotted circle]; two persons
drinking; altar and sun; bull in the lower register

60

Fig. 104; Failaka; no. 89 impression; bulls; antelopes; person; chequered

square; trough? [A trough in front of an animal is a typical motif on
Indus inscriptions.]

Stamp seal from Dilmun.

Fig. 102; Failaka no. 126; antelopes flanking a line (standard?)

Fig. 96f: Failaka no. 260 Double antelope at the belly in the Levant similar doubling occurs
for a lion

gaa four (Santali); rebus: ka fire-altar, furnace (Santali)

kolmo three (Mu.); kolami smithy, forge (Te.)
Glyph 2 This is a ligatured glyph comprising: plant infixed within a hole.
dulo hole (N.); rebus: dul to cast metal in a mould (Santali)
kodo millet (Mu.); rebus: ko artisans workshop (Kuwi).

H1522 (Paropola, Asko, BM Pande and Petteri Koskikallio, 2010, Corpus of Indus Seals and
Inscriptions 3.1 supplement to Mohenjoo-daro and Harappa, Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia).
This inscription is dated ca. 3300 BCE. The glyph of a rice plant (or maize cob) recurs on many
Indus inscriptions in many vaiant forms and in ligatured glyphs.
Ku. dulo m., li f., dulno m. hole, cavity, animal's den; N. dulo hole, animal's
hole (e.g. of a mouse), nka k dul nostril, dulko little hole; M. uu n.
little hole, l m.; poss. Ash. dra hole (ksra- duranostril, dum
durk smokehole); Wg. dri, d r g smokehole: but these poss. < DR.
Con- nexion, if any, with P.du(h) f. wolf's den, u f. mousehole (CDIAL 6452)
The entire inscription thus connotes the repertoire of the artisan: casting metal workshop with smithy
(forge) and fire-altar (furnace).
dula pair, likeness; rebus: dul cast (metal). Thus, dul kuila cast bronze. dula
m. a
pair, a couple, esp. of two similar things (Rm. 966) Rebus: dul mee cast iron (Mundari. Santali) dul
to cast metal in a mould (Santali)

61

hla m. large drum Rudray. 2. *hlla -- . [Only OAw. definitely attests -- l -- ]

1. Gy. pal. daul drum , Pa. l ( Par. uhl IIFL iii 3, 65), Kho. (Lor.) dol, K. l m., kash. hl,
L. P. Ku. N. A. B. hol, OAw. hora m., H. hol m. -- Ext. -- kk -- : L. h lk f. small drum ,
Ku. holko, H. holak f. 2. Pk. holla -- m., Or. hola, Mth. Bhoj. Aw. lakh. Marw. G.
M. hol m.(CDIAL 5608)
Vikalpa: Ta. karai, karai-ppaai, karaikai a kind of drum (said to sound like a bear,
karai). Ka. karai, karae an oblong drum beaten on both sides, a sort of double drum. / Cf. Skt.
karaa- a kind of drum. (DEDR 1264).
Hieroglyph: Ku. N. r go buffalo bull ?(or < raku -- ?)(CDIAL 10559). Hieroglyph: ran:ku = a
species of deer or antelope, the spotted axis (mare)(Ka.lex.) ran:ku antelope (Santali) ran:ku = a
species of deer (Skt.); ran:kuka id. (Skt.)(CDIAL 10559). raku m. a species of deer Vs., uka -- m.
rkah. -- more prob. < rak-<-> s.v. *rakka -- . (CDIAL 10559). rang 'buffalo'(Santali)
Pk. raka -- poor ; L. ragu poor, bad (of crops); OAw. rka wretched, poor ; H. r k
poor, r ka f. poor stony ground; G. r k,r k poor, humble , r k n. beggar ; M. r ka big
and boorish ; P. ragha m. a Moslem caste who are slothful agriculturists, conceited person
.(CDIAL 10538). rn:kava made from the hair of theran:ku deer (Ka.lex.) cf. ran:ka slow, dull
(Skt.)(CDIAL 10538).
cf. rohi a kind of deer (R.)(CDIAL 10870). rauhia, rohia a kind ofdeer (Ka.lex.) rn:kava belonging
to the ran:ku deer (MBh.); made from the hair of the ran:ku deer, woollen (R.); coming from ran:ku
(said of animals) (P. 4.2.100); a woollen cover or blanket (MBh.R.); rn:kava ka yin lying on a
heap of woollen rags (MBh.); rn:kavajina a woollen skin; rn:kavastaran.a a woollen coverlet (R.);
rn:kavastta covered with a woollen rug (Skt.); rn:kavaka coming from ran:kiu (said of men) (P
4.2.134); rn:kavyaa coming from ran:ku (said of animals) (P 4.2.100). kurunga = a kind of
antelope; kurunga miga = the antelope deer (Pali); kulunga, kulanga (Skt.)(Pali.lex.)
kulan:ga (MaitrS.); kulun:ga (TS); kuran:ga, kurun:ga (Pkt.); kuram.ga (Pali); kuran:g (P.); karam.gi_
(OG.); kura~g (G.); kurunga (Si.); kurangu the elk Rusa aristotelis (Si.)(CDIAL 3320). cf. kuran:g
light chestnut colour (Kho.)(CDIAL 3321). kuran:ga = a species of antelope, antelope or deer (in
general); kulun:ga = an antelope (VS 24; TS 5); kuran:gaka, kulan:ga = antelope; kuran:gama = an
antelope; kuran:ga_yate to take the shape of an antelope (Skt.lex.) kurahu antelope (Kuwi), kuran:ga
(Ka.) kulanga, kulunga = going in a herd, antelope (VS.); kulmi = a herd (TS. ii.4.5.2) Kho. kurag
light chestnut colour BelvalkarVol 92 (with same origin for kurag -- 1?).(CDIAL 3321).
Kurunga, name of a chieftain of Turvaa, one of the Pancha Krishti, the Five Peoples of Rig Veda.
http://tinyurl.com/82ay2le Indo-European etymology kurunga 8.4.19, cf. Kuiper 1991: 6, 17); EWA I
371 Mayrhofer, M., Worterbuch des Altindoarischen . Heidelberg 198696 (EWA) Kuiper, FBJ,
1991, Aryans in the Rigveda, Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi 1991. Proto-IE: *kerang- Meaning: a k. of
horned animal

62

Old Indian: kuraga-, kulag-, kulug- m. `antelope' Old Greek: kermbks, -kos m. Kferart mit
langen Fhlhrnen, `Hornschrter' Russ. meaning: ( ) References: WP I 403 f
Comments: A derivation from *k'era(w)-#372 Proto-IE: *k'era(w)-, k'r- Nostratic
etymology: Nostratic etymology Meaning: horn Hittite: karawar n. (r/n) 'Horn', h.l. [s ]ra/in
(Tischler 500f) Avestan: sr-, srv- 'Horn; Nagel an Fingern und Zehen' Old Greek: k ras, gen. ep. *raos, att. -rs, -rtos, at. ep. -rai, Hdt. -rei, att. -ri, pl. nom.-acc. ep. -r/-raa, att. -rta, gen. ep. -rn,
att. -rn/-rtn, dat. -rsi/-rasi, ep. -ressi Horn, Blas-, Trinkhorn'; kera - geh rnt'; keras-ph ro-s
Germanic: *xur-n-a- m., n. Latin: corn, -s n. Horn'Celtic: Galat acc. krnon , (Hsch.);
Gaul krnks (Eustath.) Trompete', Cymr, Corn, Bret karn Huf der Einhufer'; MIr cr Huf'Russ.
meaning: References: WP I 403 f
Comments: Cf. #499 *k'ar-; *k'eras-, k'rs- 'head'
Allograph: ranku liquid measure (Santali)
Rebus: ranga, ran: 'pewter, alloy of tin, lead and antimony'(ajana) (Santali) ranku 'tin' (Santali)
Horse bit in the form of a human-headed
winged bull, from Luristan, Iran
(bronze)

Credit: Horse bit in the form of a human-headed winged bull, from Luristan, Iran (bronze), Elamite,
(4000-650 BC) / Louvre, Paris, France / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library. Bronze, plaque de
mors en forme de taureau androcephale aile; http://tinyurl.com/d7ugphe
Two statuettes of men carrying offerings of goats, Elamite Period, from Susa, Southwestern Iran,
c.1150 BC (silver & gold)

Credit: Two statuettes of men carrying offerings of

goats, Elamite Period, from Susa, Southwestern Iran,
c.1150 BC (silver & gold) height: 6.3 cms/ Louvre,
Paris, France / Peter Willi / The Bridgeman Art
Library.
Impression of a cylinder seal depicting Dilmun, from
Susa, 3rd millennium BC (plaster).

63

Credit: Impression of a cylinder seal depicting Dilmun, from Susa, 3rd millennium BC (plaster), ProtoElamite (c.3200-2700 BC) / Ancient Art and Architecture Collection Ltd. / The Bridgeman Art Library

Neo-Elamite

Period (c.1000-539 BC) Horse bit in the form of

two antelopes,

from Lorestan, Iran c.700 BC (bronze) hieght:

12.6 cms Reza

Abbasi Museum, Tehran, Iran http://www.art-

prints-on-

demand.com/a/period-neo-elamite/horse-bit-in-

the-form-of.html

http://tinyurl.com/dygxtgf

Middle and Near East

Horse bits and accessories, from Lorestan, Iran (bronze)
Credit: Horse bits and accessories, from Lorestan, Iran (bronze),
Elamite, (1st millennium BC) / National Museum of Iran, Tehran,
Iran / The Bridgeman Art Library
Image number: 180389
Horse bits and accessories, from Lorestan, Iran (bronze)
Title:
Elamite, (1st millennium BC)
Primary creator: Iranian
Nationality: National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran.

Medium: bronze
#121 ANTIQUITIES
Classification:
http://tinyurl.com/c2ghesy
[p= 85,1] n. iron , metal RV. &c; an iron weapon (as an axe , &c ) RV. vi , 3 ,5 and 47 , 10;
gold Naigh. teel L. ; ([cf. Lat. aes , aer-is for as-is ; Goth. ais , Thema aisa ; Old Germ. e7r , iron
;Goth. eisarn ; Mod. Germ. Eisen.])

64

Ayo & Aya (nt.) [Sk. aya nt. iron & ore, Idg. *ajes -- , cp. Av. ayah, Lat. aes, Goth. aiz, Ohg. r (=
Ger. Erz.), Ags. r (= E. ore).] iron. The nom. ayo found only in set of 5 metals forming an alloy of
gold (jtarpa), viz. ayo, loha (copper), tipu (tin), ssa (lead), sajjha (silver) A iii.16 = S v.92; of obl.
cases only the instr. ayas occurs Dh 240 (= ayato DhA iii.344); Pv i.1013 (paikujjita, of Niraya). -Iron is the material used kat)e)coxh/n in the outfit & construction of Purgatory or Niraya (see niraya &
Avci & cp. Vism 56 sq.). -- In compn. both ayo & aya occur as bases.
I. ayo: -- kapla an iron pot A iv.70 (v. l. guhala); Nd2 304 iii. d 2 (of Niraya). -- ka an iron
hammer PvA 284. -- khla an iron stake S v.444; Miii.183 = Nd2 304 iii. c; SnA 479. -- gua an iron
ball S v.283; Dh 308; It 43 = 90; Th 2, 489; DA i.84. -- ghana an iron club Ud 93; VvA 20. -- ghara an
iron house J iv.492. -- paala an iron roof or ceiling (of Niraya) PvA 52. -- pkra an iron fence
Pv i.1013 = Nd2 304 iii. d 1. -- maya made of iron Sn 669 (ka); J iv.492 (nv); Pv i.1014 (bhmi of
N.); PvA 43, 52. -- muggara an iron club PvA 55. -- sanku an iron spike S iv.168; Sn 667.
II. aya: -- kapla = ayo DhA i.148 (v. l. ayo). -kra a worker in iron Miln 331. -- ka = ayo
J i.108; DhA ii.69 (v. l.). -- nangala an iron plough DhA i.223; iii.67. -- paaka an iron plate or sheet
(cp. loha) J v.359. -- pahavi an iron floor (of Avci) DhA i.148. -- sanghaka an iron (door) post
DhA iv.104. -- sla an iron stake Sn 667; DhA i.148.

loa ficus religiosa (Santali) rebus: loh metal (Skt.)

dahi, dai the petioles and mid-ribs of a compound leaf after the leaflets have been plucked
off, stalks of certain plants, as Indian corn, after the grain has been taken off (Santali)

Allograph: dhau m. (also dhahu) m. scarf (Wpah.) (CDIAL 6707) Rebus: dhatu mineral (Santali) dhtu mineral (Pali)

Vikalpa: kamakom = fig leaf (Santali.lex.) kamarma (Has.), kamakom (Nag.); the petiole or stalk
of a leaf (Mundari.lex.) kampaam coinage, coin (Ta.)(DEDR 1236) kampaa- muai die,
coining stamp (Ta.) kammaam, kammiam coinage, mint (Ma.); kammatia coiner
(Ka.)(DEDR 1236) kammaa = coinage, mint (Ka.M.) kampaa-k-kam mint; kampaa-kkran- coin-maker.

The superscript ligatures can be read as suffixes: - kra artisan. kruvu = mechanic, artisan,
Vis'vakarma, the celestial artisan (Te.); kruvu. [Skt.] n. An artist, artificer. An agent .

65

bhaa six (G.) baa = rimless pot (Kannada). bahu m. large pot in which grain is parched (S.)
Rebus: bhaa furnace (G.) bhaa = kiln (Santali). baa = a kind of iron (G.)
bhah f. kiln, distillery, aw. bhah; P. bhah m., h f. furnace, bhah m.
kiln; S. bhah ke distil (spirits). bahi furnace for smelting ore (the same
as kuhi) (Santali) bhaa = an oven, kiln, furnace; make an oven, a furnace; ia
bhaa = a brick kiln; kun:kal bhaa a potters kiln; cun bhaa = a lime kiln; cun
tehen dobon bhaaea = we shall prepare the lime kiln today (Santali); bhah
(H.) bhart = a mixed metal of copper and lead; bhart-y = a barzier, worker in
metal; bha, bhrra = oven, furnace (Skt.) mht bai = iron (Ore) furnaces. baha [H. bah (Sad.)]
any kiln, except a potters kiln, which is called coa; there are four kinds of kiln: cunabat.ha, a lime-kin,
iabaha, a brick-kiln, rbaha, a lac kiln, kuilabaha, a charcoal kiln; trs. Or intrs., to make a kiln;
cuna rapamente ciminaupe bahakeda? How many limekilns did you make? Baha-sen:gel = the fire of
a kiln; bai [H. Sad. Bahi, a furnace for distilling) used alone or in the cmpds. Arkibut.i and bat.iora,
all meaning a grog-shop; occurs also in ilibai, a (licensed) rice-beer shop (Mundari.lex.) bhai = liquor
from mohwa flowers (Santali)
The occurrence of glyphs of a buffalo and a ficus religiosa motif on this cylinder seal impression are
too vivid to be brushed away as mere coincidences. There WAS interaction among the neighboring
civilization areas as bronze-age trade blossomed and created the framework for an industrial
revolution. As hieroglyphs were absorbed the way the languages in the Indian linguistic area absorbed
from one another linguistic features and made them their own, it is not unlikely that the underlyings
sounds of speech related to such common hieroglyphs should relate to substrata words of contact areas
or explained by the attested presence of Meluhhan colonies or settlements in areas inhabited by nonMeluhhan speakers. It is possible that lexemes of Meluhha are also attested in the as yet undeciphered
Proto-Elamite writing system. This is a speculative statement and needs further investigation. The
Uruk (Warka) vase with its hieroglyphs comparable to Indian hieroglyphs and the identification of a
few substratum Meluhha words in Sumerian is a pointer to this possibility of Meluhhan presence and
influence.Professional names:simug `blacksmith' and tibira `copper smith'; Agricultural terms: engar
`farmer', apin `plow' and absin `furrow'; Craftsmen: nangar `carpenter', agab `leather worker'; and
Religious terms: sanga `priest'.
Glyph: antelope: mreka goat. Rebus: milakkhu copper. Vikalpa 1: meluhha mleccha copper
worker. Mleccha-mukha copper (Skt.)

66

(a) Ta. koi sheep. Ma. koi a small kind of sheep. Ko. kory a sheep (a goat). To. kuy
sheep. Ka. kui, koi sheep, ram; kuitana a sheepish, foolish disposition. Ko. kori sheep.
Tu. kuri id. Te. goe, goe, goiya, (Inscr.) goiya, (B.) gorre, gor(r)iya id. Kol. (Kin.
SR.) gorre id. Nk. (Ch.)gorre id. Go. (A. Ma.) gorre id.; (SR.) gore goat (Voc. 1208).
Kona goe id. Kuwi (F.) gri, (Isr.) gorri, (P.) gore id.; (S.) gorri id., sheep. (b) Te. goe, in:
(B.) kukka-gorre barking deer, Cervulus muntjac [also 'jungle sheep']; (ak. SAN) koagoe, (B.) koa-gorre deer, antelope.Kol. goria deer, (Kin) antelope. Go. (Ko.) gorre four-horned
antelope; (L.) gore deer (Voc. 1209). (DEDR 2165).

Ma. koan ram ; koi ewe (DEDR 2170). Ta. koam victory, success, bravery, power,
sovereignty; koava king, victor; koavi queen; koavai goddess of war and victory (George L. Hart
III, The Poems of Ancient Tamil, pp. 23-4), Durg; koi Durg. Ma. koam victory,
royalty; koavan king, headman. (DEDR 2169).
The orthographic and archaeological context of the use of hieroglyphs by Meluhhans suggests the
following rebus readings: kara buffalo; rebus: khar blacksmith. m ram; rebus: mht, me
iron;

, meh merchants helper, meluhha.

Zu, is also known as Anzu and Imdugud, in Persian and Sumerian, (from An "heaven" and Zu "to
know", in the Sumerian language). In Sumero-Akkadian mythology, Zu is a divine storm-bird and the
personification of the southern wind and the thunder
clouds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zu_(mythology) Cognate is amu soma (explained as stalks of
electrum on gold-silver ore).

67

Votive relief of Ur-Nanshe, king of Lagash,

representing the bird-god Anzu (or Im-dugud) as a
lion-headed eagle. Alabaster, Early Dynastic III
(25502500 BC). Found in Telloh, ancient city of
Girsu. H. 21.6 cm (8 in.), W. 15.1 cm (5 in.), D.
3.5 cm (1 in.) Louvre Museum. Department of
Oriental Antiquities, Richelieu, lower ground floor,
room 1a, case 5 AO 2783
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Relief_Imdugud_Louvre_AO2783.jpg
French scholar, Prof. Pinault identifies amu of Rigveda with anzu of Tocharian. In Tocharian it means
'iron'. Tocharin language as an Indo-European language has revealed a word anzu in Tocharian which
meant 'iron'. It is likely that this is the word used for soma in Rigveda. I have posted about this in the
context of identification (discussed in this blog) of Muztagh Ata of Kyrgystan as Mt. Mujavat
(mentioned as a source of soma in Rigveda). It is notable that in Mesopotamian legend of Ninurta, god
of war and agricultural fertility hunts on the mountains, Anzu which is the lion-headed Eagle with the
power of the stolen Tablet of Destinies. The 'eagle' is identified as yena in Rigveda and Avesta (saena
meregh) as the falcon which brought the nectar, Soma. It is likely that soma as electrum (silver-gold
ore) was bought from the traders who broughtanzu from Mt. MujavatTocharian is acknowledged to
be a satem group IE language. If Tocharian was spoken in Mt. Mujavant (Muztagh Ata), the mlecchaspeakers were dasyu, mleccha-vcas, who like rya vcas were also dasyu. They
brought soma impregnated within acu ironfor Rigvedic people to process it. This acu is
metaphorically referred to by Valmiki in the context of surymu and ayah-jlninet of iron which
was smashed by the falcon. Gayatri was the falcon who fetched soma.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html
Gerd Carling, Georges-Jean Pinault, Werner Winter, 2008, Dictionary and thesaurus of Tocharian
A,Volume 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.

68

Lapis lazuli square stamp seal. British Museum.

The seal with Indus script glyphs is decoded as bead-maker,
(with) furnaces to cast copper and iron (see discussion on
rebus readings of glyphs in the following paragraphs).
This stamp seal was originally almost square, but because of
damage one corner is missing. Originally two figures faced
each other. The one on the left has largely disappeared. On
the right is a man with his legs folded beneath him. It is suggested that at the top are rain clouds and
rain or a fenced enclosure. Behind the man are a long-horned goat above a zebu. This last animal is
related in style to similar creatures depicted on seals from the Indus Valley civilization, which was
thriving at this time. There were close connections between the Indus Valley civilization and eastern
Iran. One of the prized materials that was traded across the region was lapis lazuli, the blue stone from
which this seal is made. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/100340942/Decoding-a-lapis-lazuli-Indus-seal(context)-Silk-road-and-Indus-valley-contacts---Kalyanaraman-(2011)

m1179

2606

Kalibangan043

m1170a

m1171

m1430Bt
m1430C

m1430At
m0489At

m0488c
m0489Bt

m0489Ct

69

m0300 Composite animal: human face, zebu's horns, elephant tusks and trunk,
ram's forepart, unicorn's trunk and feet, tiger's hindpart and serpent-like tail.

ram glyphic ligatured to human-face glyphic element

[ mh ] m (

through H) A male sheep, a ram or tup. 2 A crook or curved end (of a stick, horn
&c.) and attrib. such a stick, horn, bullock.
mil markhor (Trwl) meho a ram, a sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120); rebus:
mhet, me iron (Mu.Ho.)
[ mhasara ] m A bracelet of gold thread. (Marathi)
Glyph: dhau scarf (WPah.). Rebus: dhatu mineral (Santali). dhtu mineral
(Pali) dhtu mineral (Vedic); a mineral, metal (Santali); dhta id. (G.)H. dhn
to send out, pour out, cast (metal) (CDIAL 6771).
abe, abea large horns, with a sweeping upward curve, applied to buffaloes
(Santali) Rebus: ab, himba, hompo lump (ingot?), clot, make a lump or clot, coagulate, fuse, melt
together (Santali)
Rebus reading of the face glyph: m he face (Santali) m h opening or hole (in a stove for stoking
(Bi.); ingot (Santali) m h metal ingot (Santali) m h = the quantity of iron produced at one time in a
native smelting furnace of the Kolhes; iron produced by the Kolhes and formed like a four-cornered
piece a little pointed at each end; mh mht = iron smelted by the Kolhes and formed into an
equilateral lump a little pointed at each of four ends; kolhe tehen mht ko mh akata = the Kolhes
have to-day produced pig iron (Santali.lex.) kaula mengro blacksmith (Gypsy) mleccha-mukha (Skt.)
= milakkhu copper (Pali) The Sanskrit loss mleccha-mukha should literally mean: copper-ingot
absorbing the Santali gloss, m h, as a suffix.
[ mamu ] mamu. [Telugu] n. Joining,union,
Glyph spear:

[ memu ] or

rim of a bell-shaped earring, set with gems.

." BD. vi. 116.

memu. [Tel.] n. A spear or dagger.

."

. The

70

Glyph oppositon: mtha opposing, quarrelling with . [ mith] Pa. mdhaka -- , aga -- m.
quarrel, abuse ; L. m h m. accusation, reproach . (CDIAL 10314) mamu. A fight,
battle,

mdamu-pousu. v. n. To fight a battle.

.
a cock fight.

[ mricu ] mnrinsu. [Tel.] v. a. To divide, cut, sever;

(Telugu)

Seal from Shortugai incised with an antelope and two other pictographs. Shortugai in Oxus basin,
on the Kokcha-Amu Darya doab, has revealed the existence of a Harappan colony for carrying out
trade in lapis lazuli. Apart form typical Harappan pottery, a seal bearing the script has also been found
to confirm the trading character of the colony. (Six decades of Indus Studies in: BB Lal and SP
Gupta, eds., Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Fig. .8, p. 9].
urseal8Seal; BM 118704; U. 6020; Gadd PBA 18 (1932), pp. 9-10, pl. II, no.8; two
figures carry between them a vase, and one presents a goat-like animal (not an
antelope) which he holds by the neck. Human figures wear early Sumerian
garments of fleece.
Cylinder seal impressions: (a) Nuzi (D. Stein); (b) Ugarit (Schaeffer-Forrer 1983); (c) Alalakh (Collon
1982); (d) Alalakh (Collon 1982); (e) Nuzi (D. Stein); (f) Nuzi (D.Stein); (g) Ugarit (Schaeffer-Forrer
1983); (h) Alalakh (Collon 1982).The styles are: juxtaposed antelope, humans and trees framed by
geometric patters. The styles have prehistoric roots in Mesopotamia and glyphs such as an antelope
with its head turned, jointed animal heads are also seen in Harappan inscription motifs.

Ur. Shell plaque. Shell plaque From Ur, Southern Iraq (c.
2,600-2,400 B.C.E.) Entwined in the branches of a
flowering tree, two goats appear to be nibbling on its
leaves. This decorative plaque, which was carved from
shell and highlighted with bitumen, was also excavated
from the Royal Tombs of Ur. The glyphics on this plaque
are comparable to the glyphics on Tablet 1431E showing
two goat glyphs flanking a tree glyph.
After Amiet, P., 1961, La glyptique mesopotamienne archaique, Paris: 497;
Mundigak IV.3; 3.

71

Ta. koi (-pp-, -tt-) to nip off the husks of grains, nibble grain, graze, pick up food here and there (as
cattle). Ma. koikka to nibble (as a mouse), eat grains, nipping off the husk. Ka. kouku, koaku,
kuuku, kuuku to bite, gnaw, nibble. Ko. kori- (korip-, koric-) (snake) strikes, (rat) eats grain by
cracking husk; (Kar.) kurk- (kurki-) to munch. Tu. (B-K.) kojal to gnaw as rats do with grains and
fruits. Te. kouku to bite, gnaw; n. a bite. Kol.kork- (korokt-) to bite, sting, (Kin.) nibble. Nk. kork- to
bite. Pa. kork- to cut with the teeth or scissors, gnaw, nibble. Ga. (S.3) kork- (koruk-) to
gnaw. Go. (many dialects) kork-, (Tr.) krkn id.; (Ma.) kok- id., bite, nibble
(Voc. 927). Kona koRk- (-t-) to crush with the teeth, bite. (DEDR 2164).
Sumerian cylinder seal showing flanking goats
with hooves on tree and/or mountain. Uruk
period. (After Joyce Burstein in: Katherine Anne
Harper, Robert L. Brown, 2002, The roots of
tantra, SUNY Press, p.100)
This motif is found on a Harapan tablet.. The leaf on a mountain motif is found on a seal from
Kalibangan.
Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization

Two goats + mountain glyph reads rebus: me kundr 'iron turner'. Leaf on mountain: kamakom
'petiole of leaf'; rebus: kampaam 'mint'. loa = a species of fig tree, ficus glomerata, the fruit of ficus
glomerata (Santali) Rebus: lo iron (Assamese, Bengali); loa iron (Gypsy).

72

Cylinder seal impression, Mesopotamia [Scene representing Gilgamesh and Ea-bani in conflict with
bulls in a wooded and mountainous country; British Museum No. 89308] Image parallels:

Sign

232
Glyph mountain:

[ mea ] or

hill, a rock.

.(
(

mea. [Tel.] n. Rising ground, high lying land, uplands. A

,

mu , n. [T. mea, M. K. mu.] 1. Height;

.) 2. Eminence, little hill, hillock, ridge, rising ground;

.) Ka. mede heap. Te. (VPK, intro. p. 128) meda id. (DEDR 5065) Ta. meu place where custom

is paid, custom-house. Tu. (K. Ramakrishnaiya, Dravidian Cognates, p. 181) mou place where
custom is paid. Te. meu id., place where toll is levied, toll-gate.(DEDR 5059). Ta. meu mound, heap
of earth; mu height, eminence, hillock; muu rising ground, high ground, heap. Ma. mu rising
ground, hillock; mu hillock, raised ground; mil rising ground, an alluvial bank; (Tiyya) maa
hill. Ka. mu height, rising ground, hillock; miu rising or high ground, hill; mie state of being
high, rising ground, hill, mass, a large number; (Hav.) mue heap (as of straw). Tu. mi prominent,
protruding; mue heap. Te. mea raised or high ground, hill; (K.) meu mound; mia high ground,
hillock, mound; high, elevated, raised, projecting; (VPK) mu, ma, mi stack of hay; (Inscr.) meacnu dry field (cf. meu-nla, meu-vari). Kol. (SR.) me hill; (Kin.) me, (Hislop) met
mountain. Nk. me hill, mountain. Ga. (S.3, LSB 20.3) mea high land. Go. (Tr. W. Ph.) ma,
(Mu.) maa mountain; (M. L.) me id., hill; (A. D. Ko.) mea, (Y. Ma. M.) mea hill;
(SR.) me hillock (Voc. 2949). Kona mea id. Kuwi (S.) metta hill; (Isr.) mea sand hill. Cf. 5474
Ta.viam. DED(S, N) (DEDR 5058).

73

m0304AC Pict-81: Person (with three visible faces) wearing bangles

and armlets seated on a platform (with an antelope looking
backwards) and surrounded by five animals: rhinoceros, buffalo,

antelope, tiger and elephant.

2420

A lexeme which may explain the 'mountain' or 'haystack' glyphs;

Rebus: Rebus: mht, me iron (Mu.Ho.): kunda 'hayrick'; rebus:
kundr turner (A.)
kundavum = manger, a hayrick (G.) Rebus: kundr turner (A.); k dr, k dri (B.); kundru (Or.);
kundau to turn on a lathe, to carve, to chase; kundau dhiri = a hewn stone; kundau murhut = a graven
image (Santali) kunda a turner's lathe (Skt.)(CDIAL 3295) This rebus reading may explain the hayrick
glyph shown on the sodagor 'merchant, trader' seal surrounded by four animals.Two antelopes are put
next to the hayrick on the platform of the seal on which the horned person is seated.
[ kaupu ] kadupu. [Tel.] n. A herd of cattle or flock of sheep.
a herd of buffaloes.
antelopes.

a herd of swine.

a flock of owls.

kay, n. <

See

Interrogation, question;
goat;
buffalo;

.(

. 602,

(
kay-k-kau , n. <

a swarm of bees.
ka , n. <

.)

.(

kaavu , n. <

.) 4. cf. M. kivu. He-

. 1. Male buffalo;

. 33). 2. Male goat or sheep;

+. Bull-calf;

ka-v-ai , n. <

-. 1.

. 63, 10). 2. cf. G. gar. Male of sheep or

.) 3. Sheep;
. Colloq.

a herd of

a flock of parrots.

.
.(

.(

.
.

. 3.)

-. Treading out grain a second time by buffaloes or bulls;

. (W.)

ka-viu- , v.

intr. < id. +. To thresh out grain with buffaloes or bulls after beating the sheaves upon the threshing
floor;

.(

. 62, 15,

.)

74

*gaa4 sheep . 2. gaara -- , ala -- m. Apte. [Cf. garik -- f. ewe in front of a flock
lex., galik<-> f. sheep Psht. garai lamb NTS ii 256] 1. Ash. gaew m. sheep
, w f.; Wg. gaw, go ram , gusok lamb ; Pa. gi f. sheep ; L. ga m. wild sheep . 2.
Pk. gaar -- f. goat, ewe , riy -- f. ewe ; Wo. gare lamb ; B. gal, ar the long -legged sheep ; Or. graa, gaera, ar ram , grai ewe , garaa sheep ; H. gar f. ewe ;
G. gar, r n. sheep . -- Deriv. B. gle shepherd , H. gaariy m. (CDIAL 3983) Allograph:
hill goat: P. kh m. hill goat ; WPah.J. kh m. ram , kg. (kc.) khu m., poet. khau m.
(Him.I 31 all prob. conn. K. kah, stem ka -- , < *kaa -- 2). (CDIAL 3790a).
ka , n. < kaha. [U. karh.] Shallow iron boiler for boiling sugar;
< kaha. 1. Sphere, globe;

.(

kakam, n.

.) 2. Brass boiler;

.(

.)

Bahrain seal: four antelope heads

emanating from a star. Dotted circles on
the obverse.

m417AC Pict-62: Composition: six heads of animals from a core: of unicorn, of

short-horned bull (bison), of antelope, of tiger, and of two other uncertain
animals) radiating outward from a hatched ring (or 'heart' design).
1383 The inscription shows a warrior.

dula hole. Rebus: dul casting (metal) (Santali)

Glyph: mo the tail of a serpent (Santali) Rebus: Md. moen massages, mixes . Kal.rumb. mo - to thresh , urt. ma -- to soften (CDIAL 9890) m

f. mixing (Gr.Gr. 126),

esp. mixing up or kneading (by rubbing with the palms of the hands) of flour or other food with water,
buttermilk, etc. (Gr.Gr. 1); cf. m ay and namda-mo. -- di --

&below;

f.inf. to

mix food, as ab. m i onu- Thus, the ligature of the serpent as a tail of the composite animal glyph is
decoded as: polished or mixed (alloyed?) metal (artifact).
xol = tail (Kur.); qoli id. (Malt.)(DEDr 2135). Rebus: kol pacalha (Ta.)
.

(
.(

. 318.)
. (P. T. L.)

blacksmith caste;

kol, n. 1. Iron;
. 550). 2. Metal;

kolla, n. < T. golla. Custodian of treasure;

kollicci, n. Fem. Of
.(

. Woman of the

.) The gloss kollicci is notable. It clearly

75

evidences that kol was a blacksmith. Kola blacksmith (Ka.); Ko. Koll blacksmith (DEDR 2133).
Ta. Kol working in iron, blacksmith; kolla blacksmith. Ma. Kollan blacksmith, artificer. Ko. Kolel
smithy, temple in Kota village. To. Kwalal Kota smithy. Ka. Kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime,
kulume, kulme fire-pit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith; (Gowda)

lls id. Ko. Koll

blacksmith. Te. Kolimi furnace. Go. (SR.) kollusn to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstn, kulsn to
forge; (Tr.) klstn to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to
forge (DEDR 2133)

kol Working in iron;

. Blacksmith;

(Tamil)
Surya Kanta Sastri, 1953, A grammatical dictionary of Sanskrit (Vedic), Delhi, Moolchand Khairati
Ram Trust http://rigveda.us/gr/grdic.pdf
kurunga 'antelope'; probably formed after Pali kurunga. kulunga 'antelope'; for kulanga = kuranga (in
Classical Skt.) with fluctuation between a and u.
kolhuya 'jackal'; from *koDhuya.
aja 'he-goat'. Lith. ozys; j is an old palatal when it is so shown by the evidence of cognate languages
160; M.32; equation in Slav. is coza, where according to Zubaty k is a prefix (in Slavic)
ajati 3 sg. pr. root: aj 'drive'. aji 'battle'.
aj-ina 'skin, hide'. Old Slav. azino 'hide'.
(): kuila bent; rebus: kuila, katthl = bronze (8 parts copper and 2 parts tin) [cf. ra-ka, brass
(Skt.) (CDIAL 3230) kui in cmpd. curve (Skt.)(CDIAL 3231).
kui in cmpd. curve, kuika bent MBh. (CDIAL 3231); rebus: kuhi smelter (Santali)
meha polar star (Marathi).
the

[ mhj ] m A stake-

;a

who keeps account of

&c., by driving stakes into the ground: also a class, or an individual of it, of fortune-tellers,

diviners, presagers, seasonannouncers, almanack-makers &c. They are Shdras and followers of
the

q. v. 2 Jocosely. The hereditary or settled (quasi fixed as a stake)

mhmata ] n (

Polar star,

of a village.

Dogma or sect.) A persuasion or an order or a set of tenets and

notions amongst the Shdra-people. Founded upon certain astrological calculations proceeding upon
the North star. Hence
lord of the sign Aries (Tamil)
. (W.)

or

ma , n. <

. The planet Mars, as the

mtipa , n. < mdhipa. Agni, as riding a ram;

mam , n. < mha. Ram;

.(

.) me iron

(Ho.Mu.) Allograph: mil markhor (Tor.wali) meho a ram, a sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120) me iron
(Ho.) meed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.)

76

Rebus: meha, mehi merchants clerk; (G.) mha antelope; rebus: me iron (Ho.) angar bull
angar blacksmith. Antelope: meh goat (Br.) Rebus: meha, mehi merchants clerk; (G.)
Harappa seal (h350B) Harappa seal (h330)
Kalibangan 37, 34
Two Kalibangan seals show an antelope and fish glyphs as the inscription. mha antelope; rebus:
me iron (Ho.)
There is possibility that antelope and fish were allographs of Indus writing, in the context of presence
of Meluhha artisans/merchant settlements in settlements such as Susa, Failaka and along the Persian
Gulf (an area which may have connoted a region of Meluhha speakers). This hypothesis is evaluated in
the context of the evidence of the Susa ritual basin which showed a combined hieroglyph: goat-fish
flanking a formation of molluscs. Antelope is a glyph which occurs frequently on artifacts of ancient
Iran. Both antelope and fish are hieroglyphs in Indus script corpora.

Approximate extent of Scythia within the area of distribution of Eastern Iranian languages (shown in
orange) in the 1st century BCE
http://www.answers.com/topic/scythia#ixzz1sv4qUW3c
Scythia , ancient region of Eurasia, extending from the Danube onthe west to the borders of China on
the east. The Scythians flourished from the 8th to the 4th cent. B.C.E. They spoke anIndoIranian language ... The Scythian state reached its greatest extent in the fourth century BCE
during the reign of Ateas... Materials from the site near Kamianka-Dniprovska, purportedly the
capital of the Ateas state, show that metallurgists were freemembers of the society, even if burdened
with imposedobligations. The metallurgy was the most advanced and the onlydistinct craft speciality a
mong the Scythians. http://www.reference.com/browse/scythia Indo-Scythian studies being
Khotanese texts. Edited by H. W. Bailey. Published 1961 by University Press in Cambridge (Eng.)

77

See the monograph which focuses on two animal hieroglyphs: buffalo and antelope of Indus writing.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/buffalo-and-antelope-hieroglyphs-of.html This suggests that
the orthographic and archaeological context16 of the use of hieroglyphs by Meluhhans suggests the
following rebus readings: kara buffalo; rebus: khar blacksmith. Perhaps there is an allograph lamb
or young ram, which connotes the same rebus reading, in case the orthography is used by a person
familiar with Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) animal names: Hamito-Semitic: *karr- lamb > Bibl. Heb.
kar young ram, Ugaritic kr lamb, Old Akkadian kerru ram, Mari Akkadian karru ram, Akkad.
kirru a breed of sheep, Berber -kVrar- > Ahaggar e-krer, Nefusi a-krar billy-goat. (Aharon B.
Dolgoposky, Etymology of some Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) animal names in: Gabor Takacs, ed.,
2003, Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies: In Memoriam W. Vycichl, Leiden,
Koninklijke Brill NV, p.429)
Allograph: r, s.m. (2nd) A thorn, a thistle, a bramble. 2. A spike, a splinter.
Pl. rnah. r-dr, adj. Thorny, barbed, troublesome. r-gr, s.f. (3rd)
A fence (Pushto)
Allograph: ar, s.m. (4th) (Pu. and Pers.) An ass, a donkey. Pl. rah. arah, s.f.
(3rd) A female donkey. Pl. ey. gorah-ar, s.m. The onager or wild ass. Pl.
gorah-rah. ar-tob, s.m. (Pushto). ar is also deployed as a hieroglyph on Indus
script corpora.
An impression of Seal m0290 showing wild-ass
as middle sign on top register; the field symbol is a
tiger (perhaps in front of a trough). Hieroglyph:
kola tiger rebus: kol working in metal.
Hieroglyph: khar wild-ass; rebus: khr smith
(Kashmiri).
The other two signs read rebus: Ko. ka-p t
flesh of hind thigh of animal (DEDR 1175). Pe.
pota calf of leg. Man. pata id. Kui pota id. ?
(DEDR 4513) Rebus: 1. ka stone ore 2. pot
glass bead (H.); putti small bead (B.)(CDIAL
8403). Glyph: pot thigh (Ko.); rebus: pot glass
bead (H.)
khareo = a currycomb (G.) Rebus: khard
turner (G.)

16

Most of the hieroglyphs of this note are discussed in S. Kalyanaraman, 2012, Indian Hieroglyphs,

Herndon, VA. http://tinyurl.com/cnelreb

78

Hieroglyph trough read rebus: pattar trough; rebus: pattar goldsmith guild. The entire
hieroglyphic composition read rebus: ka pot khr khard stone-ore-bead smith-turner- guild.
Vikalpa for the wild-ass glyph: khuru 'wild ass' (Kashmiri) kuro silver (Kol.Nk.Go.)(DEDR 1782).
Vikalpa reading: ka pot kuro khard silver-stone-ore-bead smith-turner-guild.

See the note on goat and fish as hieroglyphs: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/susa-ritualbasin-decorated-with.html

See the note on Susa ritual basin showing a composite of goat + fish as hieroglyphs:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/susa-ritual-basin-decorated-with.html

Shu-ilishu's cylinder seal. Department des Antiquites

Orienteles, Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Cylinder seal: hunting scene Period: Akkadian Date: ca. 22502150 B.C.E. Geography: Mesopotamia
Culture: Akkadian Medium: Chert
Dimensions: H. 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm)
Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seal, Inscribed

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/30008837

Dilmun seal from Barbar; six heads of antelope radiating from a circle; similar to
animal protomes in Failaka, Anatolia and Indus. Obverse of the seal shows four
dotted circles. [Poul Kjaerum, The Dilmun Seals as evidence of long distance
relations in the early second millennium BC, pp. 269-277.] A tree is shown on this
Dilmun seal. Glyph: tree: kui tree. Rebus: kuhi smelter furnace (Santali).
ayo fish; rebs: ayo metal (G.) [These are examples which clearly
demonstrate that Indus script is a glyptic writing system and hence, all
glyphs and glyptic elements have to be decoded.]

79

A copper anthropomorph had a fish glyph incised. Anthropomorph with fish sign incised on the
chest and with curved arms like the horns of a markhor. Sheorajpur (Kanpur Dist., UP, India). State
Museum, Lucknow (O.37) Typical find of Gangetic Copper Hoards. 47.7 X 39 X 2.1 cm. C. 4 kg.
Early 2nd millennium BCE.

M0592 double-axe shown on a copper plate, which depicts a double-axe identical to the one unearthed
in Sumer, Mesopotamia, ca. 3000 BCE. m0592Atm0592Bt

3413 Pict-133: Double-axe (?)

without shaft. [The sign is also comparable to the glyph which appears on the text of a Chanhu-daro
seal: Text 6402, Chanhu-daro Seal 23].
Dagger and axes found in an Ur grave. Sumerian double-bladed axe, Ur (V.
Gordon Childe, 1929, The most ancient East: the oriental prelude to European
history, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd., Fig. 72b).

m0273

2673

m0271 Goat-antelope with horns turned backwards and a short tail

m0272 Goat-antelope with horns bending backwards and neck turned backwards

Kalibangan067

m0543At

8121 Ox-antelope with a long tail; sometimes with a trough in front.

3363 [Note the heart orthograph on the

m0543Bt

body of the antelope. This is comparable to Sign 323

m1169a

2554

2024

80

Pict-58: Composite motif: body of an ox and three heads: of a one-horned bull (looking forward), of
antelope (looking backward), and of short-horned bull (bison) (looking downward).

m1170a

1382 Composite animal

m1171 Composite animal

m1452Act

Pict-30

m1452Bct

2912

1804

Pict-39 Ox-antelope with a long tail; a trough in front.

Bhirrana2
Kalibangan043 8039 Pict-59:Composite motif: body of an ox and three heads: of a one-horned bull
(looking forward), of antelope (looking backward), and of short-horned bull (bison) (looking
downward).
Bison: angrar bull; rebus: gar blacksmith (H.)
One-horned heifer: koiyum heifer kundr turner (A.); kh, kh , koth
The lexeme kh may denote the pannier emphatically orthographed on a one-horned heifer. The
rebus reading is: kh turner. Thus, the one-horned heifer with the pannier is read rebus as: kh
ko turners workshop.

81

Thus, the hieroglyphic composition most frequently occurring on Indus script corpora, namely,
standard device + one-horned heifer + pannier gets decrypted as kh k sanga turners

workshop (in) stone-fortified settlement or (with) stone-observation post. [kh] m A

of which one end is formed into a cowl or hood. [kh] f An outspread shovelform sack (as
formed temporarily out of a , to hold or fend off grain, chaff &c. (Marathi) khdrang, khudrang
adj. c.g. self-coloured; as subst. m. N. of a kind of blanket having the natural colour of the
wool (L. 37). khudr f. a kind of coarse woollen blanket. (Kashmiri) Pa. kotthal -f. sack (?) ; Pk. kotthala -- m. bag, grainstore (kha -- m. bag < ktha?); K. kthul, lu m.
large bag or parcel , kothj f. small do. ; S. kothir f. bag ; Ku. kuthlo large bag, sack ; B.
kthl satchel, wallet ; Or. kuthai, thui, kothai, thii wallet, pouch ; H. kothl m. bag, sack,
stomach (see kttha -- ) , l f. purse ; G.koth m. large bag , f. purse, scrotum ; M. koth m.
large sack, chamber of stomach (= pe k) , n. sack , f. small sack ; -- X g -- : S.
gothir f. bag , L. gutthl m.(CDIAL 3511) Ta. kaam travelling sack placed on a bullock, packsaddle. Ka. kaale, kaa, kae, kale double bag carried across a beast. Te. kaalamu,
kalamubullock-load consisting of two bags filled with goods. / Cf. Mar. kah a bag having
opening in the middle (DEDR 1174)

Chanhu-daro23
6402 Goat-antelope with a short tail.
The object in front of the goat-antelope is a double-axe.

Chanhu-daro
Ox-antelope with a long tail; a trough in front.

6121

82

h286A,B

4429 Incised miniature tablet

Goat-antelope with a short tail

The Afghan Urial. The estimated population in Torghar is 1,742 animals.
http://www.un.org.pk/undp/sgp/green-pioneers/chap-13.htm
Ovis orientalis Common Name/s:

English Urial, Cyprian Wild Sheep, Cyprus Mouflon, Mouflon, Red Sheep
French Moufln De Chypre
Spanish Mufln De Chipre
"Wild sheep" and "wild goats" found on Mediterranean islands are generally recognized to have
been introduced by humans (Shackleton 1997, Wilson and Reeder 2005), and genetic and
archaeozoological studies suggest that they are feral populations of ancient domestic stocks (e.g.,
Groves 1989, Vigne 1994, Hiendleder et al. 1998, Manceau et al.1999, Kahila bar-Gal et al. 2002)
This species occurs as Urial or Arkar in Afghanistan, northwestern India (Kashmir), northeastern and
southeastern Iran, southwestern Kazakhstan, Oman (where it is possibly introduced), Pakistan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Intermediate Laristan sheep occur in southern Iran, and
Mouflon are found in Armenia, southern Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, western Iran, and eastern Turkey,
with an isolated population in south-central Turkey.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/15739/0

the Urial (Ovis orientalis) occupies a largely infertile area from Kashmir to Iran, including much
desert country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat-antelope The urial is
found in western central Asia from northeastern Iran and
westernKazakhstan to Pakistan's Balochistan and Indian Ladakh. To the
east it is replaced by the bigger argali and to the southwest by the Asiatic
mouflon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urial
Punjab urial http://www.wildsheep.org/sheep/international.htm

83

Nubian Ibex at Ein Gedi nature reserve, The Judean desert, Israel.
The Biblical heroine Yael's name means "Ibex" in Hebrew.

Antelopes attacked by birds, signs of Cypro-Minoan script, cylinder seal and its impression. Hematite,
Late Bronze II (maybe 14th century BC). From tomb 1 at Sinda in Cyprus. Louvre Museum, AM
1639 Department of Oriental Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room A, case
10http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cylinder_seal_antelope_Louvre_AM1639.jpg

Antelope seal, Proto-Elamite, Iran c. 3000

BCE - BM2005
Cylinder seal
Period: Late Cypriot
Date: ca. 15th12th century B.C.E.
Geography: Cyprus Culture: Cypriot Medium: Steatite Dimensions: 0.79 in. (2.01 cm) Classification:
Stone-Cylinder Seal Credit Line: The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76
Accession Number:
74.51.4320 Said to be from Amathus, Cyprus. 18651872, found in
Cyprus by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola; acquired by the
Museum in 1874, purchased from General Luigi Palma di Cesnola

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/30000015
Cylinder seal: palmette tree flanked by winged griffin and caprid; figure between them with raised
hands; ingot
Date: ca. 14th13th century B.C.E.
Accession Number: 1999.325.222

84

Cylinder seal: palmette tree flanked by winged griffin and

caprid; figure between them with raised hands; ingot
Period: Late Cypriot II Date: ca. 14th13th century B.C.E.
Geography: Cyprus Culture: Cypriot

Medium: Hematite Dimensions: H. 15/16 in. (2.4 cm); Diam. 3/8 in. (1 cm) Classification: StoneCylinder Seal Credit Line: Gift of Nanette B. Kelekian, in memory of Charles Dikran and Beatrice
Kelekian, 1999 Accession Number: 1999.325.222 This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 406
Cylinder seal: hero grasping two antelopes by their hind legs
Period: Middle Assyrian Date: ca. 13th century B.C.E. Geography: Iran, Luristan, Surkh Dum

Culture: Assyrian Medium: Chalcedony Dimensions: 1.1 in. (2.79 cm) Classification: Stone-Cylinder
Seal Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1943 Accession Number: 43.102.37 This artwork is currently on
display in Gallery 404 1938, excavated by Erich F. Schmidt, on behalf of the Second Holmes
Expedition sponsored by the American Institute for Persian (later Iranian) Art and Archaeology;
acquired by the Museum in 1943, purchased from the American Institute for Iranian Art and
Archaeology, New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/30002653
Cylinder seal: worshiper with an animal offering
before a seated deity
Period: Middle Elamite Date: ca. 1480-1450 B.C.E.
Geography: Iran, Luristan, Surkh Dum
Culture: Elamite Medium: Apatite Dimensions: 0.98
in. (2.49 cm)

85

Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seal Credit line: Rogers Fund, 1943 Accession Number: 43.102.39
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 404 1938, excavated by Erich F. Schmidt, on behalf of
the Second Holmes Expedition sponsored by the American Institute for Persian (later Iranian) Art and
Archaeology; acquired by the Museum in 1943, purchased from the American Institute for Iranian
Art and Archaeology, New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/30002655
Cylinder seal and modern impression: archer aiming at goats flanking a tree Period: Neo-Elamite
Date: ca.10th century B.C.E. Geography: Iran, Luristan, Surkh Dum
Culture: Elamite Medium: Burnt steatite Dimensions: 1.71 in. (4.34 cm) Classification: StoneCylinder Seal Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1943 Accession Number: 43.102.33 1938, excavated by
Erich F. Schmidt, on behalf of the Second Holmes Expedition sponsored by the American Institute
for Persian (later Iranian) Art and Archaeology; acquired by the Museum in 1943, purchased from the
American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology, New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-thecollections/30002649
Cylinder seal and modern impression: two horned animals,
rosettes
Period: Proto-Elamite Date: ca. 31002900 B.C.E.
Geography: Southwestern Iran Culture: Proto-Elamite
Medium: Clinoenstatite (sometimes referred to as "glazed steatite") Dimensions: H. 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm);
D. 11/16 in. (1.8 cm) Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seal Credit Line: Gift of Nanette B. Kelekian, in
memory of Charles Dikran and Beatrice Kelekian, 1999 Accession Number: 1999.325.104
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/30006389
Sceau-cylindre proto-lamite http://fr.academic.ru/dic.nsf/frwiki/1517430

carving knife =ti-bir

(ti=shaft )
lion =ur-mah
ipar=industry,
iparos=merchant, business
man.
a-ra, ar-um = miller, r-l =miller, grind. http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumerian_Vocabular.htm

86

Hrishikesh is a surgeon in UK who happened to see this seal 6" square with a jeweller in Ujjain. The
Ujjain jeweller's seal has three glyphs, all of them Sarasvati hieroglyphs: 1. bison (with pronounced
hump); 2. three peaks; 3. fire-altar (+ shaped) The readings are: homa 'bison'; rebus: soma 'electrum'
ka, peak; rebus: ka 'workshop'; tebra three'; rebus: tibira 'merchant' fire-altar 'ka' tibira,
'merchant' tm(b)ra, 'copper' (Pkt.); sanga, 'priest', sngv, 'priest, pilgrim's guide' (Gujarati) Vikalpa:
kolmo three (Mu.); rebus: kolami furnace (Telugu)
An axe (tabar) on auction

Dating: 19th Century Provenance: Persia Description: Convex-edged axe, chiselled on both sides with
a lion, an antelope and human figures on a dark background, framed with gold-inlaid bands;
rectangular hammer chiselled with a lion fighting with an antelope; the upper fastening is decorated
with a cabochon turquoise; wooden cylindrical grip covered with three partly gilded silver mounts
embossed with floral motifs; round cap with suspension ring.
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6187899
[quote]BADTIBIRA, THE METALS PROCESSING CENTER
The name BAD-TIBIRA means "city where the ores are processed." In the King List it retained
kingship for the longest time of all the cities, almost half of the period of time recorded before the
Deluge, which is indicative of its primary importance among the cities. Sumerian "tibira" is derived
from the same proto-Sumerian substrata word as Hebrew "tubal," which means "metal worker." This
relationship is seen in Genesis wherein Tubal-Cain, the son of the Patriarch Lamech, is credited with
the invention of metals: "Tubal-Cain, who forged the various implements of copper and
iron."[unquote] http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/serpents_dragons/boulay02e.htm

87

Bad-tibira, "Wall of the Copper Worker(s)",[1] or "Fortress of the Smiths",[2] identified as modern Tell
al-Madineh, between Ash Shatrah and Tell as-Senkereh (ancientLarsa) in southern Iraq,[3] was an
ancient Sumerian city, which appears among antediluvian cities in the Sumerian King List. Its
Akkadian name was Dr-gurgurri.[4] It was also called (Pantibiblos) by Greek authors
such as Abydenus,Apollodorus of Athens and Berossus. This may reflect another version of the city's
name, Patibira, "Canal of the Smiths".[5]
1. ^ W.F. Albright and T.O. Lambdin, "The Evidence of Language", in The Cambridge Ancient
History I, part 1 (Cambridge University Press), 1971, ISBN 0521070511: 150.
2. ^ Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32
3. ^ Vaughn E. Crawford, "The Location of Bad-Tibira", Iraq 22 "Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of
Sir C. Leonard Woolley" (Spring - Autumn 1960:197-199); the secure identification is based
on the recovery at the pillaged site of fragments of a known inscription of Entemenathat had
surfaced in the black market without provenance. Earlier excavations at a mound called
Medain near the site of Lagash, following a report of a vendor of one of the inscriptions, had
proved fruitless: see H. de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh, ii:139 (noted by Crawford 1960:197
note 7).
4. ^ Collection of taxes from Dr-gurgurri features in correpondence of Hammurabi (first half of
the 18th century BCE) noted in L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the
Light of Recent Discoveries (New York, 2005) p. 306f; it remained a city of metal-workers and
the principal settlement of the guild of gugurr, "metalworkers" (L. W. King, The Letters And
Inscriptions Of Hammurabi, King Of Babylon About B.C.E. 2200 vol. III, p. 21, note 2.).
5. ^ Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad-tibira
Rebus reading of eagle glyph: pajha kite. Rebus: pasra smithy, forge.
Allograph: Ta. eruvai a kind of kite whose head is white and whose body is brown;
eagle. Ma. eruva eagle, kite.(DEDR 818). Rebus: eruvai copper (Tamil).
Other glyphs used to denote alloying minerals: 1. tin, 2. zinc, 3. arsenic respectively : 1. tagaraka
(tabernae montana or ranku liquid measure), 2. sattiya (svastika glyph), 3. da (branch of tree, twig).
Glyph: aar a splinter (Ma.) aaruka to burst, crack, sli off,fly open; aarcca splitting, a crack;
aarttuka to split, tear off, open (an oyster) (Ma.); aaruni to crack (Tu.) (DEDR 66) Rebus: aduru
native, unsmelted metal (Kannada) aduru = gaiyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from
the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka. Siddhnti Subrahmaya astris New
interpretation of the Amarakoa, Bangalore, Vicaradarpana Press, 1872, p. 330)
Cf. dara stag (Sumerian) Scythian tar- =sky god

88

Early Dynastic
II/III seal in the
'Fara' style (after
Mallowan, 1961:
75, no.34).
Cylinder seal. British Museum. 89538. Depicts a person grappling with and flanked by two unicorns.
The person is shown with six hair-knots projecting out of the hero's head. On this cylinder seal, the
'hero' is shown with six circles, curls (?) on his hair. Length: 4.120 cm. Diameter: 3.650 cm. Early
dynastic period ca. 2700 BCE.
Source:http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/w/calcite_seal,_combat
_scene.aspx

m308Seal

Seven EDII seals show contest friezes (Ashmolean Museum) The lapis lazuli seal shows in the lower
register geometric motifs reminiscent of the Jemdat Nazr Diyala seals. ram in the thicket has not only
horns, fringe, beard, eyes and eye-rims of lapis lazuli, but also part of its fleece is made of overlapping
sections of the blue stone. Lapis lazuli was also used in amulets sculpted as frogs, fish, flies, calves,
bulls, rams, ibex, monkey, seated bull, eagle. 37 Royal cemetery seals depict banqueting scenes,
(generally belonging to ED III) all except five depict these scenes in two registers. Some seals have on
one register a contest, spread eagle animal row motif. Contest friezes in the 'fara' style began in EDI.

89

The seal of Nin-banda. In the upper register, the central figure is a man who grasps two animals around
their necks. The animals are attacked from the rear by another animal, whom they turn to face. The
lower register shows two crossed lions attacking two animals whose bodies are sharply angled. 53
lapis lazuli seals of EDIII date depict contest friezes; of these 17 are from Ur. A total of 138 lapis
lazuli seals are assigned to this date.

Elamite lady spinner. Musee du Louvre. Paris. An elegantly coiffed, exquisitely-dressed and well
fanned Elamite woman sits on a lion footed stool winding thread on a spindle. The stool on which the
lovely Elamite lady sits has the legs of a lion or panther; the fish is also placed on a similar stool in
front her.This five-inch fragment is dated 8th century BCE. Bituminous stone.H. 9.3 cm; W. 13 cm.
Excavations led by Jacques de Morgan; distribution after excavation.Sb 2834
Source: http://tinyurl.com/bqvnkd4
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/sit-shamshi-bronze-glyphics-compared.html

[p= 833,3] m. ( 2.
woollen) RV. &c

) a ram , sheep (in the older language applied also to a fleece or anything

90

Ayo & Aya fish, metal

ayirai , n. 1. Loach, sandy colour, Cobitio thermalis;
...

. A fish, as edible;

. 164).

.
ayilai, n. <

-. cf.
. 60). ayo fish

(G.Mu.) Ta. ayirai, acarai, acalai loach, sandy colour, Cobitis thermalis; ayilai a kind of
fish. Ma. ayala a fish, mackerel, scomber; aila, ayila a fish; ayira a kind of small fish, loach.(DEDR
191). So. Ayo `fish'. Go. ayu `fish'. Kh. kaDOG `fish'. Sa. hako `fish'. Mu. hai(H) ~ haku(N) ~
haikO(M) `fish'. Ho haku `fish'. Bj. hai `fish'. Bh. haku `fish'. KW haiku ~ hakO |Analyzed hai-kO,
ha-kO (RDM). Ku. kaku `fish'. @(V064,M106)

ayir [M. ayir.] Fine sand;

Iron;

.(

. 92.)

(
.

. 386).
.(

. 8). 2. Surgical knife, lancet;

(

. 312.)

ayil, n. cf. ayas. 1.

. 33). 4. Sharpness;
ayil-ava, n. <

. 30). 3. Javelin, lance;

.
. Skanda, as bearing a javelin;

[p= 85,1][L=14766] n. iron , metal RV. &c gold Naigh.

steel L. ; an iron weapon (as an axe , &c ) RV. vi , 3 ,5 and 47 , 10 [cf. Lat. aes , aer-is for asis ; Goth. ais , Thema aisa ; Old Germ. eir , iron; Goth. eisarn ; Mod. Germ. Eisen.] Ta. ayil
iron. Ma. ayir, ayiram any ore. Ka. aduru native metal. Tu. ajirda karba very hard iron. (DEDR 192).
yas n. metal, iron RV. Pa. ay nom. sg. n. and m., aya -- n. iron , Pk. aya -- n., Si. Ya; Md. da
iron , dafat piece of iron . (CDIAL 590). ayaska m.n. a quantity of iron, excellent iron P.
ga. [yas -- , ka -- ] Si. yakaa iron . (CDIAL 591). ayo iron (Ho.Mu.)

91

Ayo & Aya (nt.) [Sk. aya nt. iron & ore, Idg. *ajes -- , cp. Av. ayah, Lat. aes, Goth. aiz, Ohg. r (=
Ger. Erz.), Ags. r (= E. ore).] iron. The nom.ayo found only in set of 5 metals forming an alloy of
gold (jtarpa), viz. ayo, loha (copper), tipu (tin), ssa (lead), sajjha (silver) A iii.16 = S v.92; of obl.
cases only the instr. ayas occurs Dh 240 (= ayato DhA iii.344); Pv i.1013 (paikujjita, of Niraya). -Iron is the material used in the outfit & construction of Purgatory or Niraya (see niraya & Avci & cp.
Vism 56 sq.). -- In compn. both ayo & aya occur as bases. I. ayo: -- kapla an iron pot A iv.70 (v. l.
guhala); Nd2 304 iii. d 2 (of Niraya). -- ka an iron hammer PvA 284. -- khla an iron stake S v.444;
M iii.183 = Nd2 304 iii. c; SnA 479. -- gua an iron ball S v.283; Dh 308; It 43 = 90; Th 2, 489;
DA i.84. -- ghana an iron club Ud 93; VvA 20. -- ghara an iron house J iv.492. -- paala an iron roof or
ceiling (of Niraya) PvA 52. -- pkra an iron fence Pv i.1013 = Nd2 304 iii. d 1. -- maya made of iron
Sn 669 (ka); J iv.492 (nv); Pv i.1014 (bhmi of N.); PvA 43, 52. -- muggara an iron club PvA 55. - sanku an iron spike S iv.168; Sn 667. II. aya: -- kapla = ayo DhA i.148 (v. l. ayo). -kra a worker
in iron Miln 331. -- ka = ayo J i.108; DhA ii.69 (v. l.). -- nangala an iron plough DhA i.223; iii.67. -paaka an iron plate or sheet (cp. loha) J v.359. -- pahavi an iron floor (of Avci) DhA i.148. -sanghaka an iron (door) post DhA iv.104. -- sla an iron stake Sn 667; DhA i.148.
Strongs concordance: ayil: ram.
Original Word:

Part of Speech: Noun Masculine Transliteration: ayil Phonetic Spelling: (ah'-yil)

Short Definition: ram

Brown-Driver-Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon:
156

noun masculineGenesis 22:13 ram (as leader of flock, Late Hebrew & Aramaic id., Assyrian ailuDlW,

Phoenician
construct

,=

rather than

, compare CISl. p. 231) (

Exodus 29:22 +; plural

Genesis 15:9 +;

) Genesis 32:15 +; construct

31:38; Isaiah 60:7. ram, http://concordances.org/hebrew/352.htm

Original Word: Lya Transliterated word: ayil. Phonetic spelling: ah-yil
http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/kjv/ayil.html Hebrew
ayil ram, leader, chief, ayyl stag (Marvin H. Pope, 1955, El in
Ugaritic texts, vol. 2, Brill Archive, P.16)

Genesis

92

Abbreviations: Akkadian (Akk.), Hebrew, Tigre (Tgr.), Arabic (Arb.),

Sabaic (Sab.), Mehri (Mhr.), Syriac (Syr.), Jibbali (Jib.), Soqotri (Soq.)
Source: L. Kogan, 2006, Babel und Bibel 3, volume 3, Eisenbrauns, pp.
277-278.

A name aza- could derive from an Old Iranian base az-, which gave a name to the Avestan aza- hegoat, Zor. Pahl. z, zy az and azi-. Old Ind. Aja-. As the strong male animal the ram is cognate with
old Norse rammr strong, the base az- could also have expressed strong.(HW Bailey, 1985, InoScythian studies, Khotanese texts, Volume 7, Cambridge University Press, p. 135) Aja [Vedic aja
fr. aj (Lat. ago to drive), cp. ajina] a he- goat, a ram D i.6, 127; A ii.207; J i.241; iii.278 sq.; v.241; Pug
56; PvA 80. -- eaka [Sk. ajaiaka] goats & sheep D i.5, 141; A ii.42 sq., 209; J i.166; vi.110; Pug 58.
As pl. S i.76; It 36; J iv.363. -- pada goat -- footed M i.134. -- pla goatherd,
in nigrodharukkha (Npl.) "goatherds' Nigrodha -- tree" Vin i.2 sq. Dpvs i.29 (cp. M Vastu iii.302). -plik a woman goatherd Vin iii.38. -- lakkhaa "goat -- sign", i. e. prophesying from signs on a goat
etc. D i.9 (expld. DA i.94 as "evarpna ajna mansa khditabba evarpna na khditabban
ti"). -- laik (pl.) goats' dung, in phrase nimatt a. a cup full of goats' dung (which is put down a
bad minister's throat as punishment) J i.419; DhA ii.70; PvA 282. -- vata "goats' habit", a practice of
certain ascetics (to live after the fashion of goats) Jiv.318. aja -- pada refers to a stick cloven like a
goat's hoof; so also at Vism 161. Ajaka a goat, pl. goats Vin ii.154. -- f. ajik J iii.278 & ajiy J v.241.

aja A ram, he-goat (

Tv.]. The sign Aries. N. of a mineral substance
(

). Ms.8.235.

[
-

] goats and sheep; small cattle;

Mb.1.113.35.

93

aj m. goat , aj -- f. RV., ajak -- , -- ik -- f. small or young goat P.

Pa. aja -- , aka -- m., ajik -- , iy -- f., Pk. aya -- m., ay -- f., A. ajake m., k f., Shum. u f.
(NOGaw 37 < ajanik -- q.v.), Sh. ai f., S.a f.; Si. ada goat, ram . There is considerable confusion
of meaning between goat and sheep , and phonet. the Shum. Sh. S. forms may represent av -- ,
avik -- . There is a similar confusion in their cmpds. But Sh. bro. she -- goat < aj -- . (CDIAL
145) *ajakaa m. flock of goats . [Ext. with -- a -- of ajaka -- , cf. avika -- : aj -- ] S. ajau m.
flock of goats (< ayyau ?); L. eiyu, (Jukes) aiyya m. flock of sheep or goats , P. ayya m. -- Or
< avika -- .(CDIAL 146). *ajanik she -- goat , or ajn -- ? [aj -- ]
Gaw. hn f. (NOGaw 37 < *ajanik -- , but perh. < kahyana -- ), Shum. u (or < aj -- or vi -- ).
150 *ajapaha young goat . [aj -- , *paha -- ] S. aiha f. she -- goat 10 or 12 months old . -- Or
< *avipaha -- .(CDIAL 149). ajapl m. goatherd VS. [aj -- , pl -- ] Pa. ajapla -- m.,
Pk. ayavla -- m.; Gaw. wl shepherd , Kal. wal -- m (NOGaw 53 < -- vla -- extracted from
cmpds. with -- pla -- ); L.eiyl m. shepherd, goatherd ; P. ayl f. (?) flock of sheep or goats
, ayl, yl m. shepherd, goatherd ; Marw. eviyo m. shepherd . -- The forms of Gaw. Kal. L. P.
Marw. may equally be < avipl (CDIAL 151). *ajava m. goat -- pen . [aj -- , va -- 1: with EH.
-- r- < -- -- rather than < -- vra -- ] H. aiwr m. shed for sheep, goats or cattle in jungle . -- Or <
aviva (CDIAL 154) . ajavthi f. path of the constellation Aries Yj. [aj -- , vthi -- ]
Pa. ajavthi -- , Si. adav Geiger EGS 7, but prob. Pa. 158 ajna n. skin of esp. the black antelope
used by ascetics AV. [aj -- ] Pa. ajina -- n., Pk. ajia -- , aa -- n., Si. adun, andun (Sikhavalanda v.
3). Addenda: ajna -- [Cf. ajinapatr -- , tr -- , trik f. bat lex.] WPah.kg. flying fox Him.I
7. ajinapatr -- bat see ajna (CDIAL 155). *ajya flock of goats . [aj -- ] L. ajja m.,
P. ajja, ijja m. -- Deriv. L. ja m. shepherd , P. j m. (CDIAL 163). ja pertaining to goats
vGr., goat's milk . [jaka -- n. flock of goats : aj -- ] (CDIAL 1089) *ajya caprine . [For
suffix cf. Lith. s he -- goat < i s IEW 7. -- Sh. and P. i due to palatalizing effect of
following jj (for this in NWPk. see Brough Dhp 81) rather than to derivation < *ai i -- (IE. *ai <->
in Gk. ai)/c and *i -- in Ir. words meaning only leather IEW 13, EVP 105, H. W. Bailey BSOAS
21, 539). -- aj -- ]

m. a drove , troop (of

ram. the vehicle of

s) a driver , mover , instigator , leader. the leader of a flock. a he-goat ,

94

What was the language the sea-faring traders with Mesopotamia spoke? Mleccha, meluhhan. [quote]
"Baloch" is the corrupted form of Melukhkha, Meluccha or Mleccha, which was the designation of the
modern eastern Makkoran during the third and the second millennia B.C.E., according to the
Mesopotamian texts. [J. Hansman, "A Periplus of Magan and Melukha", in BSOAS. London, 1973, p.
555; H.W. Bailey, "Mleccha, Baloc, and Gadrosia", in: BSOAS. No. 36, London, 1973, pp. 58487.Also see, Cf. K. Kartrunen, India in Early Greek Literature. Studia Orientalia, no. 65, Helsinki:
Finnish Oriental Society, 1989, pp. 13-14.] [unquote] Source: Baluchistan nationalism: its origin and
development balochwarna.org
Sh.gil. f. ewe , pales. sheep ; -- ext. -- -- see *ajya -- .
887 vi m.f. sheep RV., avik -- m. P., avik -- f. RV., avk -- f. AV., avil -- f. lex.
Pa. avi -- m. ram (but avilma -- goat's hair ); Pk. avi -- , avia -- , avila -- m. sheep, goat
, avil -- f. ewe ; Tor. i f. ewe (more prob. with AO viii 299 < -- , see a -- ), Sh. bro. i;
Si. aviy goat (Geiger EGS 13, but prob. Pa.)
Sh. ai f. she -- goat , S. a more prob. < ajik -- (see aj -- ). But there is both phonetic and semantic
confusion between vi -- and aj -- and their cmpds. 893 avipl m. shepherd VS. [vi -- , pl -- ]
Bshk. pr shepherd (AO xviii 224, but why is -- p<-> retained?), Gaw. wl, Kal. wal -- m (see
s.v. ajapl -- ); L. eiyl m. shepherd, goatherd ; P. ayl f. (?) flock of sheep or goats
, ayl, yl m. shepherd, goatherd ; Marw. eviyo m. shepherd . -- The forms of Gaw. Kal. L. P.
Marw. may equally be < ajapl -- . 895 *avimaya consisting of sheep . [vi -- , maya -- :
cf. gmya -- consisting of cattle RV.] Kt. w sheep , Wg. wam, Pr. wam (poss. Morgenstierne
NTS xvii 310). 896 *aviva m. sheep-pen . [vi -- , va -- 1]
H. aiwr m. shed for sheep, goats or cattle in jungle : with EH. -- r -- < -- -- rather than < -- vra - . -- Or < ajava -- .

a. ( -

a. (-

) (-

f.) Of or belonging to an antelope (as skin, wool &c.); Y.1.259.

f.) Belonging to a sheep. -

A species of sheep. a. Ved. [

anything refreshing; Vaj.15.7. -Belonging to a sheep. -

N. of Purravas (

] 1 Containing
); cf.

Rv.1.95.18 ( ). mfn. (fr. ) , coming from the sheep MBh. viii.

Eaka1 [?] a threshold (see Morris, J.P.T.S. 1887, 146) Vin ii.149 (pdaka -- ptha, why not "having
feet resembling those of a ram"? Cp. Vin Texts iii.165 "a chair raised on a pedestal"); D i.166;
A i.295; ii.206. The word & its meaning seems uncertain.(Pali)
Eaka2 [Sk. eaka] a ram, a wild goat Sn 309; Vism 500 (in simile); J i.166; Pug A 233 (= urabbha). -f. eak S ii.228, eak Th 2, 438, eik J iii.481.(Pali)

95

2512 a m. a kind of sheep Ktyr., -- f., aka -- 1 m. a sheep or goat , aia -- ovine
MBh., aiak m. a kind of sheep Br., iikka -- f. wild goat lex. [ Drav. EWA i 126 with lit.]
Pa. eaka -- m. ram, wild goat , ak -- , ik -- , ik -- f.; A. eaka -- m. ram , k -- f. ewe ,
NiDoc. he'i sheep (?) Burrow KharDoc 10 (cf. h -- in Brahui h she -- goat ); Pk. la -- , aya -m. ram , liy -- f., ay -- f., akka -- m., Pa. weg. , ku. e_, ar. ye, e m. ram ,
weg. , ku. e_, ar. ye f. ewe ; Shum. y, yelik m. sheep , yelik f.,
Gaw. a, y m., , y f., Bshk. r f., Tor. i f. (less likely < vi -- ), Mai. "'" Barth NTS xviii 123,
Sv. yeo m., ia f., Phal. yom., i f., Sh. jij. i; S. eli -- pavharu m. goatherd ; Si. euv goat ;
<-> X bhra -- q.v.
9604 bha1 m. sheep , bhaiaka -- of sheep lex. [bhra- X a -- ?]
Ash. biar she -- goat , Pr. byr, Bshk. br; Tor. birh he -- goat , Phal. bho: all with AO viii 300
doubtful.
9606 bhra -- , bha -- m. ram lex. [ Austro -- as. J. Przyluski BSL xxx 200: perh. Austro -as. *mra ~ bhra collides with Aryan mhra -- 1 in mhra -- m. penis BhP., ram lex. -See also bha -- 1, m -- , a -- . -- The similarity between bha -- 1, bhra -- , bha -- ram
and bha -- 2 defective is paralleled by that between mhra -- 1, mha -- 1 ram and
*ma -- 1, *mha -- 2 (s.v. *mia -- ) defective ]
. ba f. sheep , K.o. bh pl., L. bhe f., aw. bhe, bhi, P. bhe, f., m.; WPah.bhal.
(LSI) hle, (S. Varma) bhe, pl. f. sheep and goats , bhad.bhe, cur. bhra, bh,
cam. bh, kha. bhiu n. lamb ; Ku. N. bheo ram , bhei ewe ; A. bher, bhr sheep ;
B. bhe ram , sheep , i ewe , Or.bhe, i, bhi; Bi. bh sheep , ram ;
Mth. bho, ; Bhoj. bhe ram ; Aw.lakh. bh sheep ; H. bhe, f., m., G. bhei f.; -X m -- : Kho. be young ewe BelvalkarVol 88. WPah.kg. (kc.) bh m. sheep , bhi f.,
J. bhe m.
It is possible that the goat-fish composite hieroglyph on Susa ritual basin connoted ayo metal by
representing the sound aya, ayil, lya in Munda (ayo fish), Hebrew (ayil, ram) and Phoenician (lya,
ram)

96

Annex B
Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph: association with veneration of ancestors, sacredness
Abstract
Sacredness connoted by the temple-priest explains the occurrence of the trefoil glyph on the two bases
discovered in Mohenjo-daro, for holding ivalinga. Veneration of pitr-s (ancestors) is an ancient Indian
tradition.
Use of trefoil glyph is seen in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in Uruk and in Indus artifacts.
1)

Heifer with trefoil inlays, Uruk (W.16017) c. 3000 BCE; shell mass with inlays of lapis lazuli, 5.3

cm long. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin; cf. Parpola, 1994, p. 213.

2)

Trefoil decorated bull; traces of red pigment remain inside the trefoils. Steatite statue fragment.

Mohenjo-daro (Sd 767). After Ardeleanu-Jansen, 1989: 196, fig. 1; cf. Parpola, 1994, p. 213. Trefoils
painted on steatite beads. Harappa (After Vats. Pl. CXXXIII, Fig. 2)
4)Trefoils Painted On Steatite Beads, Harappa.
5) Trefoil on the shawl of the priest. Mohenjodaro. The discovery of the King Priest acclaimed by Sir
John Marshall as the finest piece of statuary that has been found at Moenjodaro.draped in an
elaborate shawl with corded or rolled over edge, worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm.
This shawl is decorated all over with a design of trefoils in relief interspersed occasionally with small
circles, the interiors of which are filled with a red pigment . Gold fillet with standard device
hieroglyph.
Glyph hole: pottar, pottal, n. < id. [Ka.poare, Ma. pottu, Tu.potre.] trika, a group of
three (Skt.) The occurrence of a three-fold depiction on a trefoil may thus be a phonetic determinant, a
suffix to pot as in potka.
Rebus reading of the hieroglyph: potti temple-priest (Ma.) potR " Purifier "'N. of one of the 16
officiating priests at a sacrifice (the assistant of the Brahman),

(Vedic). ptr1

cleaning instrument ( the Potr's soma vessel RV.). [ p](CDIAL 8404)

Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph
Thanks to Carlos Aramayo for the insights on links with Egyptian hieroglyphs. For a detailed
discussion of Indian hieroglyphs from circa 3500 BCE, see:
http://tinyurl.com/7rbcer2

Hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carving") or hieroglyphics (

97

[]). Sacredness connoted by the temple-priest explains the occurrence of the trefoil glyph on
the two bases discovered in Mohenjo-daro, for holding ivalinga. Veneration of pitr-s is an ancient
Indian tradition. This is also paralleled in the Sit-Shamshi bronze from Susa on a Uruk statue and
Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Bronze arched sistrum (musical instrument) with Hathor head decoration. Egypt, Late Period, after 600
BC. From the British Museum online catalogue. This is a remarkable example of use of hieroglyphs to
convey meaning of a human face with petals as ears of a cow (Hathor or Bat associated with
sistrum).
The note presents the use of trefoil glyph in
Egyptian hieroglyphs, in Uruk and in Indus artifacts.
1) Heifer with trefoil inlays, Uruk (W.16017) c.
3000 BCE; shell mass with inlays of lapis
lazuli, 5.3 cm long. Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin; cf. Parpola, 1994, p. 213.
2) Trefoil decorated bull; traces of red pigment remain inside the trefoils. Steatite statue fragment.
Mohenjo-daro (Sd 767). After Ardeleanu-Jansen, 1989: 196, fig. 1; cf. Parpola, 1994, p. 213.
Trefoils painted on steatite beads. Harappa (After Vats. Pl.
CXXXIII, Fig. 2)

Statue, Uruk (W.16017), C. 3000 BCE; Calfl With Trefoil Inlays.

Trefoils Painted On Steatite Beads, Harappa.
Steatite Statue Fragment; Mohenjodaro (Sd767); Trefoil-Decorated Bull; Traces Of Red Pigment
Remain Inside The Trefoils.

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Trefoil on the shawl of the priest. Mohenjodaro. The discovery of the King Priest
acclaimed by Sir John Marshall as the finest piece of statuary that has been found at
Moenjodaro.draped in an elaborate shawl with corded or rolled over edge, worn
over the left shoulder and under the right arm. This shawl is decorated all over with
a design of trefoils in relief interspersed occasionally with small circles, the interiors
of which are filled with a red pigment . Gold fillet with standard device
hieroglyph.

Two bases decorated with trefoil and a lingam.

Smoothed, polished pedestal of dark red stone.
National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi. After Mackay
1938: 1,411; II, pl. 107:35; cf. Parpola, 1994, p. 218.

Trefoil Inlay Decorated Base: National Museum Of Pakistan,

Karachi; After Mackay 1938 (possibly associated with
ivalinga).

Cylinder (white shell) seal impression; Ur, Mesopotamia (IM 8028); white shell. height 1.7 cm., dia.
0.9 cm.; cf. Gadd, PBA 18 (1932), pp. 7-8, pl. I, no.7; Mitchell 1986: 280-1, no.8 and fig. 112;
Parpola, 1994, p. 181; fish vertically in front of and horizontally above a unicorn; trefoil design.

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The burial coach in the form of a divine cow.

The bed is made of wood, coated
with gold, the disc of the sun
between the lyre form the horns of
the Divine Cow identifies the
Goddess Hathor. Net weight is 75
Kg.

Head of Hathor Cow of the Royal Couch

Tut Ankh Amun Treasures c. 1341 BCE 1323 BCE.
Prenomen : Nebkheperure
Tutankhamen's funeral bed is made in the bovine form
of the goddess Hathor with the solar disc between her
horns. This is the bed on which Tutankhamen's coffin was layed.
http://www.egyptmyway.com/images/photo/egmuseum/tutanchamon_hathorbed_b530.jpg
Hathor and Psammetik: Psammetik, who deposited this statue in his
tomb, was a high official with immortal; "overseer of seals","governor
of the palace". He is placed here under the protection of the Hathor
cow, goddess of love and joy. Polymer model: 11.5"H, polymer and
hand finished

Ajrak (Sindhi: )is a name given to a unique form of blockprinted shawls and tiles found in
Sindh, Pakistan. Ajraks are also worn by the Seraiki people of Southern Punjab and Kutch. Trefoil in
Arabia is called Shamrakh.
That by the medieval period a vigorous trade in mordant-printed and resist-dyed cottons extended to
the Red Sea and Egypt was confirmed by archaeological finds in those regions. Unfortunately, textile
fragments discovered in the 1930s at Fustat, near modern Cairo in Egypt, were handled
unscientifically. Considerable numbers of the fragments, including a substantial percentage of
mordant-printed and indigo-dyed batik resist cotton fabrics from India, were widely dispersed among
museums and private collections in the West with little information about their position in the dated
layers of the Fustat excavations. http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/publication/newsletter/8_03.html#(6)

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Glyph of shawl, a gaudy dress for an idol; rebus: potti priest

The glyphs decorating the shawl are trefoils, that is, three hollow circles. Read rebus, the shawl is
potti. potti, pottika n. Same as. Doll's clothes, a gaudy dress for an idol or for a little girl. (Telugu) S.
pot f. shawl Pk. potta -- , taga -- , tia -- n. cotton cloth , pott -- , ti -- , tullay -- , putt -- f.
piece of cloth, man's dhot, woman's s , pottia -- wearing clothes (CDIAL 8400) ptramu a
cloth (Telugu)

pttu , n. <

. 1. Hole, hollow (Tamil) buhi mala a bead with

wide hole (Santali) peaa three (Santali)

posta red thread employed to make borders of cloth (Santali) pta2 m. cloth , ptik -- f. lex. 2.
*ptta -- 2 (sanskrit- ized as ptra -- 2 n. cloth lex.). 3. pttha -- 2 ~ pavsta<-> n. covering (?)
RV., rough hempen cloth AV. T. Chowdhury JBORS xvii 83. 4. pnt -- f. cloth Divyv. 5.
*pcca -- 2 < *ptya -- ? (Cf. pty = ptn samha P.gaa. -- pta -- 1?). [Relationship with
prta -- n. woven cloth lex., plta -- bandage, cloth Sur. or with pavsta -- is obscure: EWA ii
347 with lit. Forms meaning cloth to smear with, smearing poss. conn. with or infl. by pusta -- 2 n.
working in clay (prob. Drav., Tam. pcu &c. DED 3569, EWA ii 319)] 1. Pk. pa -- n. cloth ;
Pa.ar. pwok cloth , pg net, web (but lau. dar. pwk cotton cloth , Gaw. pk IIFL iii 3,
150). 2. Pk. potta -- , taga -- , tia -- n. cotton cloth , pott -- , ti -- , tullay -- , putt -- f. piece of
cloth, man's dhot, woman's s , pottia -- wearing clothes ; S. pot f. shawl , potyo m. loincloth
; L. pot, pl. t f. width of cloth ; P. pot m. child's clout , pot to smear a wall with a rag ; N.
poto rag to lay on lime -- wash , potnu to smear ; Or. pot gunny bag ; OAw. pota smears,
plasters ; H. pot m. whitewashing brush , pot f. red cotton , potiy m. loincloth , pot m.
baby clothes ; G. potn. fine cloth, texture , pot n. rag , pot f., tiy n. loincloth , pot f.
small do. ; M. pot m. roll of coarse cloth , n. weftage or texture of cloth , potr n. rag for
smearing cowdung .3. Pa. potthaka -- n. cheap rough hemp cloth , potthakamma -- n. plastering ;
Pk. pottha -- , aya -- n.m. cloth ; S. potho m. lump of rag for smearing, smearing, cloth soaked in
opium . 4. Pa. ponti -- rags . 5. Wg. p cotton cloth, muslin , Kt. pu; Pr. pu duster, cloth ,
puk clothes ; S. poco m. rag for plastering, plastering ; P. pocc m. cloth or brush for
smearing ,poc to smear with earth ; Or. pucara, pucur wisp of rag or jute for whitewashing
with, smearing with such a rag . (CDIAL 8400)
ptti

pi , < id. n. 1. Praise, applause, commendation;

Brahman temple-priest of Malabar;

. (W.) 3.

. (W.) 2.

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See

, 1.--int. Exclamation of praise;

(

. 13, 92) (Tamil) potR `" Purifier "'N. of one of the 16 officiating

priests at a sacrifice (the assistant of the Brahman),

(RV. Br. rS. Hariv.)

trika, a group of three (Skt.) The occurrence of a three-fold depiction on a trefoil may thus be a
phonetic determinant, a suffix to pot as in potka.
Rebus reading of the hieroglyph: potti temple-priest (Ma.)
1. Praise, applause, commendation;

ptti

pi , < id. n.

. (W.) 2. Brahman temple-priest of Malabar;

. (W.) 3. See

Exclamation of praise;
(

. 13, 92) (Tamil) potR `" Purifier "'N. of one of the 16 officiating priests at a sacrifice (the

assistant of the Brahman (RV. Br. rS. Hariv.)

...

Grandfather;

.(

+. To praise, worship, adore;

pimai, n. < id. Honour, reverence;

. 189.)
-+

.
-

pu-, 5 v. tr. 1. To praise, applaud;

protect, cherish, keep with great care;

punar , n. <

, 693)

.(

. 171,

).

.)

. 5, 60). 2. To worship;

.(

.) 3. To

.
-. 1. Relatives, kinsmen;
(

-. A system of watching;
(

pa, n. prob. id.

. 3).

pu, n. <

. (W.)

, 1.--int.

. 4, 52). 2. Those who understand;

(

. 4, 55).

Rebus: Bi. pot jeweller's polishing stone (CDIAL 8403). [The dotted circle may denote a polished
bead; hence, Pk. p tt -- f. glass (CDIAL 8403).] Pk. p tt -- f. glass ; S. pti f. glass bead ,
P. pot f.; N. pote long straight bar of jewelry ; B. pot glass bead , puti, p ti small bead ;
Or. puti necklace of small glass beads ; H. pot m. glass bead , G. M. pot f.; --

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Lexemes related to some glyphs and the use of red pigment: Pota [cp. Epic Sk. pota, see putta for
etym.] the young of an animal J ii.406 (skara); Cp. i.102 (udda); SnA 125 (sha). Potaka ( -- ) [fr.
pota1] 1. the young of an animal M i.104 (kukkua); J i.202 (supaa), 218 (hatthi); ii.288 (assa
colt); iii.174 (sakua); PvA 152 (gaja). -- f. potik J i.207 (hasa); iv.188 (msika). -- 2. a small
branch, offshoot, twig; in twig; in amba young mango sprout DhAiii.206 sq.; arai small firewood
Miln 53. Sk. pota(ka) young animal and base pu -- in pumas, pus "man"] Putta [Vedic putra, Idg.
putlo=Lat. pullus ( putslos) young of an animal, fr. pu, cp. Gr. pau=s, pai/s child, Lat. puer, pubes,
Av. pupra, Lith. puttis (young animal or bird), Cymr. wyr grandchild; also Sk. pota(ka) young animal
and base pu -- in pumas, pus "man"] (Pali) phe r a heifer (Santali) ptu male of animals (Telugu)
A phonetic determinative of the trefoil motif. srj, nom. srk, gen. asn n. blood RV., asra -- n.
Klid. 1. asn -- : Pr. us . 2. asr -- : Pa. lau. r, ku. el, dar. , ar. str.(CDIAL 971).
Glyph hole: pottar,

pottal, n. < id. [Ka.poare, Ma. pottu, Tu.potre.]

For designs on ancient cloth: cf. Pfister, R. 1938. Les T iles Imprimes de F stat et lHind ustan,Paris
: Les Editions dArt et dHistoire.
Ritual bed in the shape of a cow with the sun disk between its horns, is identified with Mehitweret
goddess of the flood and linked with the creation of the world. The decorated hide of these cows
echoes the starry sky and the eyes are in the shape of the wedjat, the eye of the sky god Horus. The
cow bed is also connected with the cycle of rebirth and resurrection
Mehet-Weret was a goddess of afterlife.
In the Old Kingdom, she was believed to have helped the pharaoh and Re reach the sky, by way of the
Nile in the underworld.
"I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the thighs of the goddess Mehet-Weret; his strength is my
strength, and my strength is his strength." Who is this? "Mehet-Weret is the great Celestial Water, but
others say that Mehet-Weret is the image of the Eye of Ra at dawn at his birth daily. "[Others,
however, say that] Mehet-Weret is the Wedjat (Eye of Horus or Ra)."

That Hathor is identified with Mehet-Weret is certain by references of the two as one in The Book of
the Dead (Spell 186) where both are referred to as the

wdjat (Wedjat, or "Eye of Horus").

However, this ancient cow goddess appears to have had no independent cult of her own, and was likely
a conceptual figure of primeval creation; it is presumed that Hathor absorbed most of her sky attributes
as early as the Old Kingdom, as exhibited by the many references of the two as identical in both
the Pyramid and Coffin Texts.

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Source: Mehet-Weret, Celestial Cow,

Goddess of Water, Creation and Rebirth

by Caroline Seawright http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mehetweret.htm

Viking, 10th century CE. Found at Roskilde,

Denmark
Female costume jewellery
This trefoil (three-lobed) brooch is made of
copper alloy. Each arm is decorated in Borre
Style with a spreadeagled animal seen from
above, its head in low, sunken relief facing in to
the centre. A perforated lug on the back is for
the attachment of a chain.
Brooches of this type were used to fasten a
cloak or shawl on the breast. The form is modelled on Carolingian trefoil fittings from sword-belts of
the ninth century, presumably either seized by the Vikings in raids on the Continent, or perhaps
obtained peacefully through trade or the exchange of gifts. The decoration, however, uses animal
rather than plant motifs, a style with which the Vikings were familiar. Simpler versions appear to have
been mass-produced.
Length: 7.400 cm.Gift of Sir A.W. Franks. M&ME 1873,12-11,1
R.A. Smith, A guide to the Anglo-Saxon and (London, British Museum, 1923)
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/trefoil_brooch.aspx
Conclusion
The trefoil is a hieroglyph read rebus. It connotes potr(i). Orthographically, it consists of pot hole +
tr(i) three and hence depicted as three circles with holes combined into a shape of trefoil.

104

pot young animal; hence, depiction of trefoil on the body of a young calf. pottia wearing cloth;
hence, depiction of trefoil on the shawl shown over the shoulder and breast of the priest statuette. In a
metallurgical context, pot jewellers polishing stone. Hence, the depiction of dotted circles on many
Indus writing corpora objects, for example, surrounding a fire-altar used for melting metals or heating
crucibles.
Rebus reading is: potri priest; poTri worship, venerate. Language is Meluhha (Mleccha) an integral
component of Indian sprachbund (linguistic area or language union). The trefoil is decoded and read
as: potr(i).

S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D., Sarasvati Research Center, Kalyan97@gmail.com March 10,

2012 (Paper presented at Buffalo TAG 2012 is the fifth meeting of TAG-USA, May 18-19,
2012 Open, General Session http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/tag2012/program.shtml)
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/115863006/Trefoil-as-an-Indian-hieroglyph-associationwith-veneration-of-ancestors-sacredness-(March-10-2012)

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Annex C
One Meluhhan village in Akkad (3rd millennium BCE)
Meluhha lay to the east of Magan and linked with carnelian and ivory. Carnelian! Gujarat was a
carnelian source in the ancient world. Possehl locates meluhha in the mountains of Baluchistan and
meluhhan use magilum-boat (Possehl, Gregory. Meluhha. in: J. Reade (ed.) The Indian Ocean in
Antiquity. London: Kegan Paul Intl. 1996a, 133208 sinda refers to date-palm. (cf. Landsberger, Die
Welt des Orients 3. 261).
Many scholars have noted the contacts between the Mesopotamian and Sarasvati Sindhu (Indus)
Civilizations, in terms of cultural history, chronology, artefacts (beads, jewellery), pottery and seals
found from archaeological sites in the two areas.
"...the four examples of round seals found in Mohenjodaro show well-supported sequences, whereas
the three from Mesopotamia show sequences of signs not paralleled elsewhere in the Indus Script. But
the ordinary square seals found in Mesopotamia show the normal Mohenjodaro sequences. In other
words, the square seals are in the Indian language, and were probably imported in the course of trade;
while the circular seals, although in the Indus script, are in a different language, and were probably
manufactured in Mesopotamia for a Sumerian- or Semitic-speaking person of Indian descent..." [G.R.
Hunter,1932. Mohenjodaro--Indus Epigraphy, JRAS: 466-503].
The acculturation of Meluhhans (probably, Indus people) residing in Mesopotamia in the late third and
early second millennium BC, is noted by their adoption of Sumerian names (Parpola, S., Parpola, A.,
and Brunswig, R.H. Jr. 1977. The Meluhha village: evidence of acculturation of Harappan traders in
late third millennium Mesopotamia? JESHO XX: 129-165). "The adaptation of Harappan motifs and
script to the Dilmun seal form may be a further indication of the acculturative phenomenon, one
indicated in Mesopotamia by the adaptation of Harappan traits to the cylinder seal." (Brunswig et al,
1983, p. 110).
Indian-style seals have been found in Sumeria. In 1932, CJ Gadd published such seals from
Mesopotamia (some of these are identified as Dilmun seals coming from Failaka and Bahrein gulf
islands). Massimo Vidale notes: As the identification of the land of Meluhha with the coastal areas
controlled by the Indus Civilization is almost universally accepted, the textual evidence dealing with
individuals qualified as men or sons of Meluhha or called with the ethnonym Meluhha, living in
Mesopotamia and of a Meluhha village established at Lagash (and presumably at other major cities
as well) unexcapably points to the existence of enclaves settled by Indian mmigrants

106

Meluhhan ships exported to Mesopotamia precious goods among which exotic animals, such as dogs,
perhaps peacocks, cocks, bovids, elephants (? Collon 1977) precious woods and royal furniture,
precious stones such as carnelian, agate and lapislazuli, and metals like gold, silver and tinAkkadian
text records that Lu-sunzida a man of Meluhha paid to the servant Urur, son of Amar-lu-KU 10
shekels of silver as payment for a tooth broken in a clash. The name Lu-sunzida literally means Man
of the just buffalo cow, a name that, although rendered in Sumerian, according to the authors does not
make sense in the Mesopotamian cultural sphere, and must be a translation of an Indian name
(Massimo Vidale, 2004, Growing in a foreign world: for a history of the Meluhha villages in
Mesopotamian in the 3rd millennium BC in: A. Panaino and A. Piras (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth
Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectural Heritage Project, held in Ravenna,
Italy, October 13-17, 2001, Milan, Universita di Bologna and IsIao, pp. 261-80.)
http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/
Though cylinder seals are normally associated with Metopotamian civilization, Sibri and Kalibangan
have yielded cylinder seals, but with unique glyphs of the script. SR Rao found a Gulf seal at Lothal.
Claiming that an area of 1.3 million sq.km. was covered, Joshi, Bala and Ram call it Sarasvati
civilization or Sarasvati culture.(Joshi, J.P., Madhu Bala, and Jassu Ram, 1984 "The Indus
Civilization: A Reconsideration on the Basis of Distribution Maps." In Frontiers of the Indus
Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, editors, Indian
Archaeological Society, pp. 511, 513).
In Sargon Is reign (ca. 2370 BCE), a reference is made to holder of a Meluhha ship . A seal in
British Museum (ca. 2250 BCE) lists enemies of King Naram-Sin, among them is a 'man of Meluhha'
by the name of _ibra.
Meluhha was used as a personal name for some people. Urkal, Ur-dlam were called the son of
meluhha. A person called nin-ana is identified with the village of meluhha. Meluhha was also
identified with specific products: giS-ab-ba-me-lu-hha (abba wood); giS-ha-lu-ub (Haluppu wood).
[quote] Numerous Mesopotamian documents, spanning several centuries, refer to the lands of
Meluhha, Makkan, and Dilmun. Modern scholars identify Meluhha with the Indus Valley, Makkan
with the Makran and Omani coasts, and Dilmun with Bahrain, Failaka, and the adjacent Arabian
coastline. These three far-flung lands were important partners in the immense trade network in which
Mesopotamia participated. A brief overview of the major literary references includes:

Sargon's inscription referring to Meluhhan ships docked at Akkad.

References to a Meluhhan ship-holder and a Meluhhan interpreter.

107

Gudea of Lagash inscriptions (ca. 22nd cent. BCE): 'the Meluhhans came up (or down) from
their country to supply wood and other raw materials for the construction of the main temple of
Gudea's capital.'

References to luxury items being imported from Meluhha.

References to a Meluhhan workers village.[unquote] [Chris JD Kostman, The Indus Valley

civilization: in search of those elusive centers and peripheries, in: JAGNES, the Journal of the
Association of Graduates in Near Eastern Studies.

In the inscription of Cylinder A, Gudea describes his involvement with craftsmen: "the ruler sat with
the silversmiths building Erinnu with precious stones, he sat with the jewelers building with copper
and tin Ninturkalamma (goddess) directed before him the craftsmen and metal casters (Jacobsen 1987:
408). Neo-Assyrian ruler Sennacherib also shows his interest in metalworking: in one inscription he
claims innovation in casting colossal metal statues (cf. Dalley 1988: 103-5); in another inscription, a
reference is made to the alloy used for casting ornamental metal friezes for gates (cf. Walker 1988:
116).

Mcmohan cylinder seal with six signs,found in 'Swat and Seistan', unrolled photographically and the
unbroken stamp-end of the seal; positive impression of the cylinder showing Harappan inscriptions
(Robert Knox, 1994, A new Indus Valley Cylinder Seal, pp. 375-378 in: South Asian Archaeology
1993, Vol. I, Helsinki)

The triangle motif is similar to the motif shown on M-443B. Possible connection with Sibri cylinder
seals (which show (i) a zebu and a lion and image of a scorpion on the flat end (Shah and Parpola
1991: 413); and (ii) a zebu bull with a geometric pattern of triangles and a circle at the stamp end).
"The Seistan findspot of this seal is of great interest. Evidence exists for the movement of Indus
commodities, and, therefore, Indus commercial activities in the direction of western Asia and, in
return, from there to the Indus world..

108

Evidence for the Harappan penetration of Seistan and farther to southeastern Iran is scanty but includes
at least one other Indus inscription from an impression of a sherd discovered at Tepe Yahya, period IV
A (c. 2200 BC) (Lamberg- Karlovsky and Tosi 1973: pl. 137)" (Knox, p. 377).
It is fascinating to note that by the Ur III Period, the Meluhhan (Harappan) workers residing in
Sumeria had Sumerian names, leading Parpola, Parpola, and Brunswig to comment that 'three hundred
years after the earliest textually documented contact between Meluhha and Mesopotamia, the
references to a distinctly foreign commercial people have been replaced by an ethnic component of Ur
III society' (Parpola et al. 1977:152). Here we have an undeniable economically-based presence of
Indus traders maintaining their own distinct village in a distant peripheral location over a considerable
span of time.] http://www.adventurecorps.com/archaeo/centperiph.html
What was the language the sea-faring traders with Mesopotamia spoke? Mleccha, meluhhan.
[quote] "Baloch" is the corrupted form of Melukhkha, Meluccha or Mleccha, which was the
designation of the modern eastern Makkoran during the third and the second millennia B.C., according
to the Mesopotamian texts.[J. Hansman, "A Periplus of Magan and Melukha", in BSOAS. London,
1973, p. 555; H.W. Bailey, "Mleccha, Baloc, and Gadrosia", in: BSOAS. No. 36, London, 1973, pp.
584-87.Also see, Cf. K. Kartrunen, India in Early Greek Literature. Studia Orientalia, no. 65,Helsinki:
Finnish Oriental Society, 1989, pp. 13-14.] [unquote] Source: Baluchistan nationalism: its origin and
development balochwarna.org
Shu Ilishus personal cylinder seal showed him to be a translator of Meluhhan language. Based on
cuneiform documents from Mesopotamia we know that there was at least one Meluhhan village in
Akkad at that time, with people called Son of Meluhha living thereThe presence in Akkad of a
translator of the Meluhhan language suggests that he may have been literate and could read the
undeciphered Indus script. This in turn suggests that there may be bilingual Akkadian/Meluhhan
tablets somewhere in Mesopotamia. Although such documents may not exist, Shu-ilishus cylinder
seal offers a glimmer of hope for the future in unraveling the mystery of the Indus script. ( G. Possehl,
Shu-ilishus cylinder seal.)
Indus Valley links unearthed in Qatar Published:
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008, 02:05 AM Doha Time
By K.T. Chacko
The brazen pot and the porcelain vase that contained the
relic of a tooth, found at a burial site at Al-Ruwaida, near
Ruwais

109

A burial site of traders from the Indus Valley, estimated to be 5,000 years old, has been found on the
north-west coast of Qatar, strengthening the theories of commercial exchange between the ancient
peoples of the Middle East and the subcontinent, according to Qatari explorer and fossil collector,
Mohamed Ali al-Sulaiti.

Based on the materials found at a graveyard at Al-Ruwaida, located a few kilometres to the west of
Ruwais, al-Sulaiti said the colony belonged to people of the Indus Valley civilisation, which flourished
around 3,000 BC.
These people mostly traded in brass. They also brought in porcelain objects, probably procured from
China, for selling in the Gulf countries including Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Abu Dhabi, al-Sulaiti,
also an amateur archaeologist, told Gulf Times in an exclusive interview.
They mined copper ore for making the brass from the Buraimi mountains in Oman and probably
smelted it in Qatar, said al-Sulaiti, who has found many fragments of brass, an alloy of copper and
zinc, at Al-Ruwaida.
Though the graveyard at Al-Ruwaida gets submerged during high tides and thus much of the remains
could have been washed away, we can still piece together some aspects of their life and culture, he
said.
One of the startling discoveries at the site was a small brazen pot with a smaller porcelain vase inside
containing a molar.
The tooth could have belonged to a chieftain or a high priest, al-Sulaiti reasoned. It is known that
the people of that period saved such relics of important people like kings and religious leaders.
Also found at the burial site was rice, which has been carbonised with the passing of time. People
used to bury food items along with the bodies of their dear ones during that period, said al-Sulaiti,
who is a US-educated engineer.
According to al-Sulaiti, the Gulf region is dotted with the remnants of the settlements of the people
from the Indus Valley civilisation period. He particularly mentioned findings in Mannar in Abu Dhabi
and some places in Kuwait.
Another important find at Al-Ruwaida was glass bangles, inlaid with lacquer paintings and parts of
necklaces and shells used as ornaments by the ancient visitors. These decorative items were similar in
style and materials used by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley during their heydays, he said.

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Talking about the Indus Valley connection, al-Sulaiti said the ox figured prominently on the shards
of pottery and coins recovered from the Qatari site. We also found needles made of brass in one of the
graves.
The Indus Valley civilisation was based at Mohenjodaro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab in Pakistan.
For the Indus Valley people, the Arabian Sea opened the doors for journey beyond the Arabian world
through the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea right into the ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia and
Egypt. It is these voyages that gave to the Indus land its earliest name of Meluhha (sailor country) in
the Babylonian records.
According to historians, the Indus Valley civilisation had close bonds of culture and trade with the
Gulf countries. Archaeologists have found the remnants of a Meluhhan village in ancient
Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
The Indus Valley people traded seals, painted pottery and lapis lazuli in exchange for copper and tin
and several other items from Oman and the Gulf states.
The Baloch and Sindh ports also carried out extensive trade with African ports in Ethiopia, Somalia,
Zanzibar, Kenya and Tanzania.
Al-Sulaiti said extensive excavations and research would lead to more definite information on these
traders who established temporary settlements as encampments at certain points on their regular routes.
http://www.gulftimes.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=209451&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id
=56
Gregory Posshel notes: The writing of Meluhha (the Indus script) remains undeciphered, in spite of
many claims to the contrary. The inscriptions are short, and this makes the job of decipherment very
difficult. To break the code, what is probably needed is a body of bilingual texts, like Jean-Francois
Champollion had when he deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. The presence
in Akkad of a translator of the Meluhhan language suggests that he may have been literate and could
read the undeciphered Indus script. This in turn suggests that there may be bilingual
Akkadian/Meluhhan tablets somewhere in Mesopotamia. Although such documents may not exist,Shuilishus cylinder seal offers a glimmer of hope for the future in unraveling the mystery of the Indus
script.

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The founder of Mesopotamias Akkadian

dynasty, Sargon the Great, boasted that: The

ships from Meluhha / the ships from Magan / the ships from Dilmun / he made tie-up alongside / the
quay of Akkad (translated by Samuel Noah Kramer). Magan and Dilmun are modern Oman and
Bahrain, respectively. This inscription, other cuneiform
documents, and recent archaeology in the Arabian Gulf tell
us about the maritime activity between Akkad (modern
Iraq) and Meluhha (modern Pakistan and India) during the
3rd millennium BC
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