Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

$1 Million Prize Offered To Whoever Deciphers This 5,000-Year-Old Script
IFL Science ^ | January 27, 2025 | Benjamin Taub

Posted on 01/30/2025 11:46:05 AM PST by Red Badger

The Indus Valley Script usually features an animal accompanied by a short series of signs.

Image credit: Ismoon, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Awriting system developed by one of the world’s earliest urban societies has given linguists nothing but grief since it was first discovered on an unintelligible stone seal in the ancient city of Harappa, in what is now Pakistan, 150 years ago. Hoping to finally crack the code, authorities have now announced a $1 million prize to anyone who manages to decipher the so-called Indus Valley Script (IVS).

Also known as the Harappan Script, the IVS was invented by the Indus Valley Civilization which emerged in the region encompassed by northern India and Pakistan some 5,300 years ago. Known for its walled cities, the Bronze Age culture thrived for several centuries before mysteriously vanishing, leaving archaeologists with few clues as to how these ancient people lived.

The first seal featuring the IVS was found by Sir Alexander Cunningham – the founder of the Archaeological Survey of India – in 1875. Engraved on the stone slab was an image of a bull accompanied by two stars and a series of six unreadable characters that Cunningham described as “certainly not Indian letters”.

Several thousand examples have since been recovered, each featuring a central animal and a short sequence of characters. Typically consisting of between four and six signs, the scripts are made more difficult to interpret by their infuriating brevity, with no lengthy inscriptions having been found.

Unlike other ancient writing systems like Egyptian hieroglyphs, the IVS does not feature on any known multilingual artifact such as the Rosetta Stone, which could be used to cross-reference the script with other known languages. However, because all of the examples found so far appear on small items of pottery or stone seals used for commerce, it seems reasonable to assume that their content relates to mundane activities and transactions rather than spiritual concepts.

Little is known about the civilization that invented the script. Image credit: DARSHAN KUMAR/Shutterstock.com Sick of waiting for researchers to crack the code, Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin – Chief Minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu – has now announced a “cash prize of $1 million to individuals or organisations that decipher the script to the satisfaction of archaeological experts.” With any luck, the incentive will prove as successful as the Vesuvius Challenge, which was launched in 2023 and offered similar rewards to anyone who could reveal the ancient script on a series of charred scrolls from Herculaneum, which was obliterated along with Pompeii by a volcanic eruption in 79 CE.

In that particular example, the script was in a known language – Latin – yet had become illegible after being carbonized by the intense heat produced by the eruption. Within a year of the challenge being set, the grand prize was claimed by a team of entrants who used artificial intelligence to reveal the text without damaging the scrolls, discovering a passage that contained philosophical musings about the pleasure of eating.

If Stalin’s contest can produce a winner, then it may inspire other citizen science initiatives aimed at decoding similarly ancient undeciphered scripts, including the enigmatic "Linear A" writing system devised by the Minoans some 5,000 years ago. Based on the island of Crete, this legendary Bronze Age civilization is often cited as Europe’s first literate society, yet the text it invented has yet to be unlocked by researchers.

Elsewhere, the Rongorongo glyphs found on wooden artifacts on Easter Island have left linguists puzzled by their complete lack of similarity to any known writing system, while the 240-page Voynich Manuscript represents one of the most famous examples of undeciphered text anywhere in the world. Thought to have been written somewhere in Europe around 500 years ago, the mysterious book appears to cover everything from astronomy to botany, yet no one has any idea what it actually says.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; History; Military/Veterans; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: agglutinative; alreadyposted; easterisland; epigraphyandlanguage; glyphs; godsgravesglyphs; harappan; harappans; herculaneum; india; indusriver; indusvalley; pakistan; prize; rongorongo; script; voynichmanuscript
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-74 next last
To: whitney69

Try #16.................


41 posted on 01/30/2025 12:27:13 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It says, “Biden was too old”.

FReepmail me for the address to send the check.


42 posted on 01/30/2025 12:27:39 PM PST by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It’s a memento of the Motley Crue and Iron Maiden concert.


43 posted on 01/30/2025 12:28:14 PM PST by CodeToad ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WeaslesRippedMyFlesh

You win! Provide your name, bank account information, social security number, account passwords and address so that the money can be sent to you.


44 posted on 01/30/2025 12:30:58 PM PST by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“42”


45 posted on 01/30/2025 12:32:00 PM PST by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“Laz would hit it”


46 posted on 01/30/2025 12:32:59 PM PST by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fai Mao

No, no, no ... it says “Break it up fellas, break it up”


47 posted on 01/30/2025 12:36:28 PM PST by CapnJack ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It says “What Me Worry”


48 posted on 01/30/2025 12:37:43 PM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Drink more ovaltine.


49 posted on 01/30/2025 12:37:44 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It says: jump on the Trump MAGA Train, no bull.


50 posted on 01/30/2025 12:45:29 PM PST by exnavy (See article IV section 4 of our constitution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

DEFINITELY A BOVINE


51 posted on 01/30/2025 12:50:44 PM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“Epstein didn’t kill himself. List to be provided later.”


52 posted on 01/30/2025 12:52:04 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." The Weapons Shops of Isher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Okay guys, when I drop my hands come out fighting.


53 posted on 01/30/2025 12:59:33 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fai Mao

The next exit is nine hundred miles .....


54 posted on 01/30/2025 1:00:06 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“Shoot these two tigers, I’m starving to death here!”


55 posted on 01/30/2025 1:14:18 PM PST by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

So how would anybody know if a proposed meaning was correct?


56 posted on 01/30/2025 1:17:26 PM PST by Peter ODonnell (For two countries with so many lawyers, there ain't much justice in Canada or America (yet))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian

“All this for a Damn flag”


57 posted on 01/30/2025 1:26:07 PM PST by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

5000 years old. Spfffff.


58 posted on 01/30/2025 1:26:11 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I am going to guess they are entry tokens to pre Roman gladiator type games. Maybe a nice shaded box judging by the intricate carving. So I say....

“VIP Entry”


59 posted on 01/30/2025 1:28:05 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It says “What Me Worry”


60 posted on 01/30/2025 1:52:46 PM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-74 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson