Indus Script -- write or wrong?

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Excerpts from: Science, Vol 306, Issue 5704, 2026-2029 , 17 December

2004 [DOI: 10.1126/science.306.5704.2026]

 

The Indus Script--Write or Wrong? by Andrew Lawler

 

Excerpts from

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5704/2026:

 

"Academic prizes typically are designed to confer prestige. But the

latest proposed award, a $10,000 check for finding a lengthy

inscription from the ancient Indus civilization, is intended to goad

rather than honor. The controversial scholar who announced the prize

last month cheekily predicts that he will never have to pay up…"

 

It appears that Steve Farmer has spoken too soon. Here is the first

claim for the award recommended:

 

sankar manicka <sankar_manicka wrote:…

 

3. Some internet sites show that the easter island script is very

similar to Indus script. What about that?

 

I do not claim that i have complete knowledge of this subject, but i

would like to know more from the experts.

 

Please bear with me if i have not followed the ongoing discussions in

this forum.

 

sincerely,

sankar narayanan.

 

Research fellow,

Dept of Genetic engineering

School of biotechnology

Madurai kamaraj university

Madurai 625021

 

IndianCivilization/message/68737

 

Thanks, Sankar Narayanan for the lead.

 

Just one section E of one rongorongo tablet shows more than 50

'symbols' (just lines 7-8). Ev7

http://www.rongorongo.org/e/ev0708.html

 

There are more tablets with non-writing in the corpus; see splendid

samples at: http://www.rongorongo.org/corpus/1.html (A veritable mine

for linguists and computational theorists).

 

This is a classic instance of mobility of script in a multi-lingual

framework; after all, easter islands are not too far from the

coastline of Hindumahasagar.

 

So, I commend to Steve Farmer, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne

computational theorist Richard Sproat and Harvard University linguist

Michael Witzel that Steve Farmer should offer the award money of

$10,000 to Sankar Narayanan who has convincingly demonstrated a sample

with more than 50 Indus script non-writing symbols.

 

Dhanyavaadah.

 

Kalyanaraman