Deciphering Ancient Scripts

Italian philologist Fabio Tamburini, in 2023, identified several subproblems crucial for deciphering a script. These steps include:

• Determining if a set of symbols represents a writing system.
• Developing procedures to segment symbols into single signs.
• Reducing signs to a minimal set, identifying all allographs (e.g., printed 'a' vs. cursive 'a').
• Assigning specific values to each symbol, phonetic or otherwise.
• Matching these values to a specific language.

Challenges with the Indus Script

Deciphering the Indus script has been particularly challenging due to several reasons:

• No Multilingual Inscriptions: Unlike the famous Rosetta Stone, which helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, there are no known multilingual inscriptions for the Indus script. The Indus Valley had trade links with Mesopotamia but no comparable inscriptions have been found.
• Language Not Known: As per Andrew Robinson, undeciphered scripts fall into three categories. The Indus script is the most complex type: an unknown script writing an unknown language, leaving scholars with minimal reference points.
• Lack of Material Evidence: While about 3,500 seals have been found, each with only a few characters, they provide insufficient material for comprehensive analysis. Furthermore, much about the Indus Valley Civilisation remains unknown and underexplored compared to contemporaneous civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The scarcity of material and information about the Indus Valley necessitates further archaeological exploration to aid philologists, epigraphists, and linguists in understanding its writing system.