The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c6.47

c6.47

However, it is equally possible that the people of our script were a seafaring race, foreign to the India into which they had penetrated up the navigable Indus and its affluents. In support of such a contention it might be urged that the sites so far known of this civilization are confined to the banks of navigable rivers; that the fish (?) sign is peculiarly in evidence in their script; that they certainly brought bitumen overseas (from Mesopotamia ?) for the swimming bath at Mohenjodaro; and that while an abundance of seals have been found which were certainly used for stamping the sealings of merchandise, as is proved by the sealing acquired by V. Scheil (no. 8 above), which still bears on it the traces of the fabric to which it was attached, such sealings are noticeably absent among the finds at Mohenjodaro and Harappa; suggesting that the seals were principally employed for stamping merchandise destined for abroad, and that Mohenjodaro was a great emporium.