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The Indus script (also known as the Harappan script) is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilization during the Kot Diji and Mature Harappan periods between 3500 and 1900 BC. Most inscriptions are extremely short. It is not clear if these symbols constitute a script used to record a language, and the subject of whether the Indus symbols were a writing system is controversial. In spite of many attempts at decipherment,〔(Possehl, 1996)〕 it is undeciphered, and no underlying language has been identified. There is no known bilingual inscription, and the script does not show any significant changes over time. The first publication of a seal with Harappan symbols dates to 1875, in a drawing by Alexander Cunningham. Since then, over 4,000 inscribed objects have been discovered, some as far afield as Mesopotamia. In the early 1970s, Iravatham Mahadevan published a corpus and concordance of Indus inscriptions listing 3,700 seals and 417 distinct signs in specific patterns. The average inscription contains five signs, and the longest inscription is only 17 signs long. He also established the direction of writing as right to left. Some scholars, such as G.R. Hunter, S. R. Rao, John Newberry,〔"Indus script monographs - Volumes 1-7", p.10-20, 1980, John Newberry〕 Krishna Rao,〔"An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology", Amalananda Ghosh, p.362, 1990〕 Subhash Kak〔Patel, P.G., Pandey, P., Rajgor, D. (2007) The Indic Scripts: Palaeographic and Linguistic Perspectives. D.K. Printworld.〕 have argued that the Brāhmī script has some continuity with the Indus system. This idea has been met with much skepticism though, with noted expert Iravatham Mahadevan stating in a 1998 interview, "I do not at all believe in this theory." Even by 1877, Cunningham, supposing that the Harappa seal he had published a few years earlier dated no later than 500 or 400 BC, attempted to interpret the 6 unknown characters in the seal as precursors of Brāhmī, even offering a tentative reading. Others such as F. Raymond Allchin have somewhat cautiously supported the possibility, and even many supporters of the consensus theory that Brāhmī probably derives from Aramaic influence do not entirely rule out the possibility of some Indus script influence, pending the discovery of new evidence that might illuminate the murky early history of Brāhmī. Another possibility for continuity of the Indus tradition is in the megalithic culture graffiti symbols of southern and central India (and Sri Lanka), which probably do not constitute a linguistic script but may have some overlap with the Indus symbol inventory. ==Corpus== Early examples of the symbol system are found in an Early Harappan and Indus civilisation context, dated to possibly as early as the 35th century BC.〔 〕 In the Mature Harappan period, from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC, strings of Indus signs are commonly found on flat, rectangular stamp seals as well as many other objects including tools, tablets, ornaments and pottery. These signs were applied in many ways, including carving, chiseling, painting and embossing, and the objects themselves were also made of many different materials, such as soapstone, bone, shell, terracotta, sandstone, copper, silver and gold. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Indus script」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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