The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s4.8

c4.s4.8

But no unanimity has been reached even on the basic issues, and most literature on the Indus script requires a lot of sifting in order to pick up useful ideas. The main reason for this unfortunate state of affairs is the fact that all keys that opened other unknown scripts are unavailable here. There are no bi- or multilingual inscriptions giving the same text in both Indus script and some readable characters. There are no understood historical texts which could tell the names of the Harappan gods, kings or cities, or which would quote samples of the language spoken by the Indus people. Even the type of the writing system represented by the Indus script is debated. Moreover, all the texts are short and limited in nature: the average length is five signs, and the longest texts, two identical three-sided tablets (M-494 and M-495), contain 26 signs each. The longest inscription on any single side of an object is found on a seal (M-314) with 17 signs divided into three lines.