The Indus Script and Economics. A Role for Indus Seals and Tablets in Rationing and Administration of Labor

Autor:	Rao, Rajesh P. N.
Rok vydání:	2018
Předmět:	Computer Science - Computation and Language Computer Science - Computers and Society Computer Science - Social and Information Networks
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
Popis:	The Indus script remains one of the last major undeciphered scripts of the ancient world. We focus here on Indus inscriptions on a group of miniature tablets discovered by Meadow and Kenoyer in Harappa in 1997. By drawing parallels with proto-Elamite and proto-Cuneiform inscriptions, we explore how these miniature tablets may have been used to record rations allocated to porters or laborers. We then show that similar inscriptions are found on stamp seals, leading to the potentially provocative conclusion that rather than simply indicating ownership of property, Indus seals may have been used for generating tokens, tablets and sealings for repetitive economic transactions such as rations and exchange of canonical amounts of goods, grains, animals, and labor in a barter-based economy. Comment: Appeared in: Walking with the Unicorn: Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia. (Jonathan Mark Kenoyer Felicitation Volume) D. Frenez, G. M. Jamison, R. W. Law, M. Vidale & R. H. Meadow (Eds.), pp. 518-525, Archaeopress, Oxford, UK, 2018
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1812.00049 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv