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Five thousand years of an auspicious mark, from Indus Valley seals to the temple walls of Nara.

The word The four gatis The seal Mohenjo-daro The meander 1940 Everything, in one list

Section 4 of 6

Mohenjo-daro

Cut into steatite, five thousand years ago.

Ancient stone seals carved with bulls, elephants, and undeciphered script symbols on display — Steatite seals came out of a mound in Sindh in the 1920s carrying the figure among their commonest motifs, in a script that has never been read. Four pages on the objects, the excavation and the report.Photo: IndusValleySeals · Wikimedia Commons

Mohenjo-daro, 1922The seals came out of a city that had been under a mound for four thousand years, and they carry the figure among their commonest motifs.
Marshall's report, 1931The excavation report is where the material entered the scholarly record, with plates, find-spots and measurements.
Harappa and LothalThe same forms appear at other cities of the same civilisation, which is what makes it a shared convention rather than a local habit.
Steatite, and how it was cutSoft stone carved and then fired to harden, which is why the seals survive and why the lines are so fine.

Five thousand years of an auspicious mark, from Indus Valley seals to the temple walls of Nara.

The word The four gatis The seal Mohenjo-daro The meander 1940 Everything, in one list About Contact

Su, asti, ka — conducive to wellbeing.