The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s8.t2.8

c4.s8.t2.8

⁷¹ In the recent editions and concordances, the Indus inscriptions from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were keyed to the published excavation reports: a number code was allotted to each of these reports and prefixed to the consecutive numbers used for the objects in the plates of the respective report. This basic reference number system was then extended to cover the other sites as well and also the unpublished objects from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa found in museums. In principle, one could recognize the site from which any given object came from the first one or two digits of its four-digit reference number. However, this system has its obvious drawbacks and limitations. Mohenjo-daro required three separate first numbers: 1 for Marshall's report, 2 for Mackay's report, and 0 (in the Finnish concordance) or 3 (in Mahadevan's concordance) for the unpublished objects. The small sites required at least two consecutive first numbers, difficult to remember. And not only had this system become a bit complex, but it also started to run out of numbers. Cf. S. Koskenniemi, A. Parpola and S. Parpola, *Materials for the study of the Indus script I: A concordance to the Indus inscriptions*, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae B 185, Helsinki 1973, xvi; and I. Mahadevan, *The Indus script: Texts, concordance and tables*, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 77, New Delhi 1977, 30.