An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s1.6

v1.c25.s1.6

An analysis of 61 basic symbols made by Lal shows that 47 of them are common to the Harappa, Chalcolithic and Megalithic complexes; six belong to the Megalithic exclusively and eight to the Harappa and Chalcolithic combined. He feels that some 'definite meaning and purpose seems to be involved' in them, particularly when 'some of the symbols occur on the Harappa seals on the one hand and in the early Brāhmī seals on the other', and also because a large majority of the symbols occur at sites connected with black-and-red pottery [11.6] from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the early centuries of the Christian era, particularly in the w. half of the country. However so far it has not been possible to suggest any phonetic, syllabic or alphabetic value for them.