The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s3.8

c4.s3.8

The inscriptions of the tablets point to such a conclusion, too. Many of the tablets have on one side a U-shaped sign which looks like a pot drawn in profile; it is preceded by zero to four vertical strokes that clearly stand for numbers. In M-494 A and M-495 A, there is a sequence of three U-shaped signs in succession: this may be another way to write the sequence 3 + U occurring on numerous tablets and apparently meaning "three pots". Sometimes the U-shaped sign on the reverse of tablets is held in the hand of a kneeling or standing man-sign (cf. H-247 A). In the moulded tablets M-478 and M-479, the sign combination of 4 + U stands next to an iconographic scene where a kneeling worshipper extends a pot shaped like the U-formed sign towards a tree. Apparently the tree is sacred, and the man is presenting the pot (or according to the inscription, four pots) to it as an offering.33