Tamil Brahmi inscriptions and other archaeological finds

[Punnaimaran]

http://www.dinamalar.com/Pothunewsde...?News_id=14237

2500 year old Workshop found in Pazhani.

[gaddeswarup]

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/28/stor...2854701600.htm

[P_R]

Not exactly pertinent but something interesting in a paper about the Indus script.

Let us consider the rebus principle utilized in logo-syllabic scripts. Most signs were originally pictures denoting the objects or ideas they represented. But abstract concepts such as 'life‘ would be difficult to express pictorially. Therefore the meaning of a pictogram or ideogram was extended from the word for the depicted object to comprise all its homophones.

For example, in the Sumerian script the drawing of an arrow meant 'arrow', but in addition 'life' and 'rib', because all three words were pronounced alike in the Sumerian language, namely ti. Homophony must have played a role in folklore long before it was utilized in writing. The pun between the Sumerian words ti 'rib' and ti 'life' figures in the Sumerian paradise myth, in which the rib of the sick and dying water god Enki is healed by the Mistress of Life, Nin-ti. But the Biblical myth of Eve's creation out of Adam's rib no more makes sense because the original pun has been lost in translation: 'rib‘ in Hebrew is Sela no connection with Eve's Hebrew name H‘awwa:, which is explained in the Bible to mean - mother of all living
- Asko Parpola ( Is the Indus Script not a writing System)

[Punnaimaran]

Brahmi script in Sankagiri.

http://www.dinamalar.com/Topnewsdetail.asp?News_id=1319

[podalangai]

Not exactly pertinent but something interesting in a paper about the Indus script.

Let us consider the rebus principle utilized in logo-syllabic scripts. Most signs were originally pictures denoting the objects or ideas they represented. But abstract concepts such as 'life‘ would be difficult to express pictorially. Therefore the meaning of a pictogram or ideogram was extended from the word for the depicted object to comprise all its homophones.

For example, in the Sumerian script the drawing of an arrow meant 'arrow', but in addition 'life' and 'rib', because all three words were pronounced alike in the Sumerian language, namely ti. Homophony must have played a role in folklore long before it was utilized in writing. The pun between the Sumerian words ti 'rib' and ti 'life' figures in the Sumerian paradise myth, in which the rib of the sick and dying water god Enki is healed by the Mistress of Life, Nin-ti. But the Biblical myth of Eve's creation out of Adam's rib no more makes sense because the original pun has been lost in translation: 'rib‘ in Hebrew is Sela no connection with Eve's Hebrew name H‘awwa:, which is explained in the Bible to mean - mother of all living
- Asko Parpola ( Is the Indus Script not a writing System)

I've heard through reliable academic sources that Asko Parpola has said at a conference that he no longer believes the Indus symbols were a "script" - rather, he now thinks they were a form of proto-writing. Apparently, he's been convinced by some of the arguments of Farmer, Witzel and Sproat. I'll post an update if anything comes out in print - until then, this is only rumour.

[podalangai]

While on the subject of the Indus script, Rao et al have published a fresh paper in PNAS, which is freely available for download:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...37106.abstract

They've used a Markov model to extract patterns from the order in which the Indus symbols appear, and find that there are clear rules for sequencing symbols. They say that this supports their thesis that it is a script encoding language.

I'd say that what the paper demonstrates is that the Indus script encodes meaning, and a higher level of meaning than mere religious symbols or traffic signs. The question of whether that meaning is expressed in linguistic terms (i.e., as pronounceable syllables) or non-linguistic terms (along the lines of non-numeric quipu) is, in my view, one that tends to get blown somewhat out of proportion. A written language - recording thoughts and information in a manner based upon speech - is one way of preserving thoughts, but there's nothing about it that makes it inherently superior to systems that're not based on trying to record speech.

[podalangai]

Here's a piece from Science Daily about Rao et al's latest paper.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0803185836.htm

[podalangai]

There's a piece in this week's issue of Time on the work of Rao and his collaborators:

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...919795,00.html

[pradheep]

Dear podalangai
Thanks for this wonderful information and keeping us updating with this area of research news.

[Punnaimaran]

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/article26324.ece

Indus valley symbols found in Kerala.