The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s7.t2: Broken objects
The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s7.t2
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Broken objects
c4.s7.t2.1
Old photographs have been published besides the new if they clearly complement each other⁵⁹ and whenever they show an object in a state of preservation that is better than its present state. A broken object may have been restored afterwards, and in some cases the impression taken nowadays of the object may be quite misleading.⁶⁰
c4.s7.t2.2
⁵⁹ Sometimes the photograph of a new impression was received only after the printing was started, with the result, e.g., that M-81 a bis now makes M-81 a irrelevant.
c4.s7.t2.3
⁶⁰ Cf., e.g., H-141 and especially H-129. From M-277 a, an old impression, it can be seen that one corner was originally missing from this seal. The restoration evidenced already in another early impression, M-277 a bis, seems dubious, for the inscription in the added corner does not seem to fit.
c4.s7.t2.4
The excavation reports sometimes left one wondering whether the object depicted is complete, and if not, how much is missing. This can be checked by examining its back or sides. In the case of the regular square seals, this is often superfluous, because the estimate can be made from the front side itself, but for the rectangular seals without iconography it is indispensable to see the flank side and the position of the cord hole that is usually pierced through its centre.⁶¹
c4.s7.t2.5
⁶¹ This can sometime be tricky. For example, the seal L-84 at first sight seems to be complete even when one looks at its side edges, because the hole goes through the middle of the seal. But the remains of a second hole show that the seal has been reshaped.