The Archaeology And Epigraphy Of Indus Writing

A detailed examination of the Indus script. It presents new analysis based on an expansive text corpus using revolutionary analytical techniques developed specifically for the purpose of deciphering the Indus script.

Epigraphic Approaches to Indus Writing is a comprehensive look at one of the last undeciphered Old World scripts. It has defied decipherment for 90 years because of the terse nature of the texts and the lack of a comprehensive corpus and detailed sign list. This book presents the analysis of a comprehensive, computer-based corpus using the most detailed sign list yet compiled for the Indus script. Custom computer programs allowed the verification of the sign list and the compilation of statistics regarding sign distribution and use. Among the questions addressed are: How do you create an epigraphic database? How do you define a sign? What is the Indus number system like? Where did the Indus script come from? and What is the Indus language(s)? Bryan Wells is an archaeologist, epigrapher, and geographer who has excavated on the west and east coasts of North America and in Baluchistan (Pakistan). Wells has studied the Indus script since 1992, and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.

Indus Age: The Writing System presents a detailed typology of the Harappan pictographic script, discusses the place of writing in Harappan culture, and speculates on the possible survival of the script in later South Asian writing systems. The failure to decipher the writing system of the Harappan civilization has not been for lack of trying. Possehl reviews over forty publications on the script, many of which attempt to decipher it. Some of these attempts, such as Flinders Petrie's Reading the Script as Egyptian Hieroglyphics, are fascinating but far-fetched. Others, for example the Russian Team's Computers and the Indus Script, are more plausible. However, no reading of the Indus script can be considered correct because there is no independent test by which to check its accuracy. Until there is, Possehl contends, the script will remain undeciphered.

The Book Demonstrates That The Harappan Script Is Well On Its Way To Decipherment.

A description of a methodology by which to decipher the writing of the Harappan civilization. The methodology is then applied and the results set forth in detail. There, results coupled with the author's extensive archaeological knowledge of the Indus Civilization creates a picture of ancient South Asian life much of which in content is unique.

Of the writing systems of the ancient world which still await deciphering, the Indus script is the most important. It developed in the Indus or Harappan Civilization, which flourished c. 2500-1900 BC in and around modern Pakistan, collapsing before the earliest historical records of South Asia were composed. Nearly 4,000 samples of the writing survive, mainly on stamp seals and amulets, but no translations. Professor Parpola is the chief editor of the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions. His ideas about the script, the linguistic affinity of the Harappan language, and the nature of the Indus religion are informed by a remarkable command of Aryan, Dravidian, and Mesopotamian sources, archaeological materials, and linguistic methodology. His fascinating study confirms that the Indus script was logo-syllabic, and that the Indus language belonged to the Dravidian family.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed short papers, workshops and doctoral consortium papers of the 22th European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems, ADBIS 2018, held in Budapest, Hungary, in September 2018. The 20 full and the 4 short workshop papers as well as the 3 doctoral consortium papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 54 submissions to the workshops and 6 submissions to the doctoral consortium. Furthermore, there are 10 short papers included, which were accepted for the main conference. The papers are organized according to the 6 workshops and the doctoral consortium: ADBIS 2018 short papers; First Workshop on Advances on Big Data Management, Analytics, Data Privacy and Security, BigDataMAPS 2018; First International Workshop on New Frontiers on Meta-data Management and Usage, M2U 2018; First Citizen Science Applications and Citizen Databases Workshop, CSADB 2018; First International Workshop on Articial Intelligence for Question Answering, AI*QA 2018; First International Workshop on BIG Data Storage, Processing and Mining for Personalized MEDicine, BIGPMED 2018; First Workshop on Current Trends in Contemporary Information Systems and Their Architectures, ISTREND 2018; Doctoral Consortium.