The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s8.t4: The 7th, 8th, and 9th criteria: the size, style, and state of preservation
The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s8.t4
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The 7th, 8th, and 9th criteria: the size, style, and state of preservation
c4.s8.t4.1
The size criterion implies that, other things being equal, the larger object comes first. Only in two categories of objects has it seemed necessary to distinguish between several size groups according to their height, for both intrinsic and layout reasons.
c4.s8.t4.2
The rectangular seals without iconography have been divided into three classes: (I) 18.5 mm and more, (II) 13 to 18 mm, (III) 12.5 mm and less.
c4.s8.t4.3
The square 'unicorn' seals have been divided into six groups: (I) 43.5 mm and more, (II) 35 - 43 mm, (III) 29 - 34.5 mm, (IV) 23 - 28.5 mm, (V) 17.5 - 22.5 mm, (VI) 17 mm and less. Within each size group, the 'unicorn' seals have been further arranged according to stylistic criteria. We have adopted the basic scheme developed by Paul Rissman by placing first the unicorns with a "collar", then the unicorns with "hatched neck", and finally the unicorns with "hatched face". Each of these groups, which apparently have a chronological significance, is subdivided according to the details of the "cultic object" in front of the unicorn.⁸⁴
c4.s8.t4.4
⁸⁴ Cf. Paul Rissman, The organization of stamp seal production in the Harappan Civilization (unpublished draft manuscript of a forthcoming study, 1986).
c4.s8.t4.5
As a general principle, badly broken objects are placed after the better preserved specimens of their category. However, exception is taken to this rule in the class of rectangular seals, which are arranged according to their length, since broken seals have once been longer than the full seals of the same length.