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To: blam
from the following title:
Parpula's two volumes of photographs covering the collections of India and Pakistan, which appeared in 1987 and 1991... and his 1994 sign list, containing 386 signs (as against Mahadevan's 419 signs), are generally recognized as fine achievements, not least by Mahadevan... This is a significant figure. It is too high for a syllabary like Linear B... and too low for a highly logographic script like Chinese. the nearest comparison... are probably the Hittite hieroglyphs with about 500 signs and Sumerian cuneiform with perhaps 600+ signs... Most scholars therefore agree that the Indus script is likely to be a logosyllabic script like its west Asian contemporaries. [pp 281-284]

These Dravidian speakers are presumably remnants of a once-widespread Dravidian culture submerged by encroaching Indo-Aryans in the 2nd millennium BC... The Indo-Aryan hymns, the Vedas... recount tales of conquest of the forts of the dark-skinned Dasa or Dasyu... the Vedas repeatedly mention the horse in their descriptions of warfare and sacrifice, and this animal was clearly a vital part of Indo-Aryan society... But there is not horse imagery at all in the Indus Valley civilization and virtually no horse remains have been found by archaeologists. Hence the Indus civilizations is unlikely to have been Indo-Aryan. [pp 290-291]
Robinson mentions "a substantial inscription found at Dholavira near the coast of Kutch in 1990, which appears to have been a kind of sign board for the city." [p 295]

Lost Languages: The Enigma Of The Worlds Undeciphered Scripts Lost Languages:
The Enigma Of The World's Undeciphered Scripts

by Andrew Robinson


3 posted on 08/12/2004 10:31:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
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To: SunkenCiv

the society that had the horse would have been about like 19th century european imperials running amok over asia and africa with guns and trains and all the accoutrements of the 1st industrial revolution.


6 posted on 08/12/2004 11:37:02 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: SunkenCiv

the society that had the horse would have been about like 19th century european imperials running amok over asia and africa with guns and trains and all the accoutrements of the 1st industrial revolution.


7 posted on 08/12/2004 11:37:06 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: blam; ckilmer; maestro; Question_Assumptions
I forgot to mention that I wouldn't turn down any "yes, helpful" votes on my review (under the name HolyOlio) of that title.
12 posted on 08/12/2004 12:17:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Unlike some people, I have a profile. Okay, maybe it's a little large...)
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