The Indus Valley civilization is the least known of the world's great bronze age cultures, because we can't read their writing. Everything about it is disputed, even whether it is writing at all in the full sense. Now Bryan Wells, an expert on the Indus Valley script, has announced what passes in this context for a breakthrough: good evidence that lines scratched on some Indus Valley pots really are numbers representing the volume of the pot or the number of objects stored inside.
The Indus civilisation had a volumetric system with inscriptions on ceramic vessels (glazed pots from Harappa) indicating that the sign ‘V’ stood for a measure, a long linear stroke equalled 10, two long strokes stood for 20 and a short stroke represented one, according to Bryan Wells, who has been researching the Indus script for more than 20 years.I find it interesting that the unit of volume works out to about 9.24 liters, about a peck, a measure derived from the size of small baskets used to carry grain.
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