1

Bronze-age writing in ancient Near East:

Two Samarra bowls and Warka vase

Abstract

Elaborating on Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s observation that “art became narrative and went beyond

accounting to become a comprehensive medium of communication,” three artifacts discussed point to the

use of hieroglyphs to communicate substantive information on the life-activities of artisans of the bronze

age. The literate communication occurred using the rebus renderings of select substrate Meluhha glosses

from Indian sprachbund, for select glyphs deployed in Indus writing which can be attributed to artisans of

Meluhha settlements in ancient Near East. Two bowls discovered by Ernst Herzfeld in the 1911-1914

campaign at Samarra and Warka vase of ancient Sumer (one of a pair) stolen in April 2003 and

recovered in June 2003 for the Iraqi museum provide the evidence for identifying hieroglyphs read rebus.

Cuneiform texts attest to the presence of Meluhha settlements in Sumer. While cuneiform was deployed

to denote names or benedictions to superiors, glyphs of Indus writing continued to be used on hundreds

of cylinder seals and other artifacts such as Samarra bowls or Warka vase. The continued use of

hieroglyphs of Indus writing together with cuneiform texts is a characteristic feature of the evolution of

writing in ancient Near East as it progressed from the use of tokens and bullae to the use of glyphs to

denote many metallurgical categories. A method of rebus readings evidenced for Narmer palette in Egypt

applied to the Indus writing glyphs reveals Meluhha (mleccha) substrate lexemes from Indian

sprachbund. Bronze-age necessitated an advance beyond the system of tokens and bullae used for

counting. Categories of products which were 12 around 7500 BCE grew beyond 350. This large number

could not be efficiently categorized by varieties in shapes of tokens or even seal impressions

on bullae envelopes. Indus writing adopted a solution of rebus method of representation of hieroglyphs on

tablets to abstract the goods represented in an accounting system for categories of minerals, metals and

alloys and stages of metallurgical processing from furnace to forge to create varieties of metalware such

as alloys using zinc and tin, knives, sickles, arrow-heads, axes, plowshares (or ploughshares). The

hieoglyphic method also enabled representation of seal-holders' professions such as merchant, smith,

scribe. The accountant was the scribe. The rebus method used words which are substrate in

Indian sprachbund. Thus, 1. ibha 'elephant' read rebus ib 'iron'; ibbho 'merchant'; 2. kola 'tiger' read rebus

kol 'working in iron'; 3. ayo 'fish' represented ayas 'metal'; 4. sangada 'lathe' read rebus jangad 'article

delivered on entrustment'; 5. tagara 'antelope' read rebus tamkaru 'merchant'; tagara 'tin'; 6. heraka 'spy'

read rebus eraka 'copper'; 7. muh 'face' red rebus muhe 'ingot'; 8. kanka 'rim-of-jar' read rebus ganika

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'accountant'; kanakku 'account'; 9. satthiya 'svastika glyph' read rebus satthiya 'zinc'; and so on. The

problem of bronze-age accounting and bill-of-lading for shipments was thus resolved through Indus

writing. Syllabic writing of kharoṣṭī (cognate with harosheth hagoyim 'smithy of nations') and brāhmī was a

further advance to represent names, titles, for example on early punch-marked coins which were the

direct result from bronze-age mints to facilitate trade exchanges using monetary media.

Ancient Near East and Meluhha interaction area

[quote]1 MAGAN and MELUHHA Geographical terms for regions in the distant south and southeast of

Mesopotamia. Both names first appear in royal inscriptions of the Akkad period; “ships from Magan and

Meluhha” were said to have brought goods to the quays of Akkad and other cities. It has been proposed

that Magan referred to the coast of Oman along the Persian Gulf, rich in copper and dates, and Meluhha

in the Indus valley. In Neo-Assyrian texts of the first millennium B.C., Magan and Meluhha probably

designated the African coast of the Red Sea (Upper Egypt and Sudan). [unquote]

The major contribution made by Meluhhans in Sumer was tin and zinc as alloying minerals to create tin-,

zinc-bronzes (to complement naturally-occurring copper + arsenic ores for arsenic bronzes).

Meluhhan artisans in Sumer used Indus writing to create metal-ware catalogs.

Meluhhan settlements in ancient Near East have been discussed.2 Rebus readings are based on

substrate lexemes of Indian sprachbund, a contact region.with pronounced bronze-age contributions of

creating alloys with tin and zinc.

Hieroglyphs of two Samarra bowls and Warka vase

Image 1. Eight fish, four peacocks holding four fish, slanting strokes surround

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Image 2. Six women, curl in hair, six scorpions

Image 3. Warka vase3. Antelope, ingot tiger, ingot, face of bull, procession of bovidae, tabernae Montana

stalks

Rebus readings of hieroglyphs which also recur on Indus writing corpora4:

dhāḷ ‘a slope’; ‘inclination of a plane’ (G.); dhāḷako ‘large metal ingot’ (G.)

ayo ‘fish’; rebus: ayas ‘metal’

mora peacock; morā ‘peafowl’ (Hindi); rebus: morakkhaka loha, a kind of copper, grouped with

pisācaloha (Pali). moraka "a kind of steel" (Sanskrit)

gaṇḍa set of four (Santali); rebus: kaṇḍ ‘fire-altar, furnace’ (Santali)

मेढा [mēḍhā] A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a curl or snarl (Marathi). S. mī˜ḍhī f., °ḍho

m. ʻ braid in a woman's hair ʼ, L. me ḍhī f.; G. mĩḍlɔ, miḍ° m. ʻbraid of hair on a girl's forehead ʼ

(CDIAL 10312). Rebus: me ḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.) meṛha M. meṛhi F.’twisted, crumpled, as a horn’; meṛha

deren ‘a crumpled horn’ (Santali) मेंढा [ mēṇḍhā ] A crook or curved end (of a stick, horn &c.)

and attrib. such a stick, horn, bullock. मेढा [ mēḍhā ] A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a

curl or snarl.

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The entire composition of glyphic elements on a Harappa tablet, h180:

4304

Other glyphic elements of the tablet:

Two tigers rearing on their hindlegs standing face to face.

Glyph: tiger: kola ‘tiger’. Rebus: kol ‘working in iron’

Glyph: dula ‘pair’. Rebus: dul ‘casting (metal).

A person carrying a sickle-shaped weapon and

a wheel on his bands faces a woman with

disheveled hair and upraised arm. kuṭhāru

‘armourer’ (Skt.) The glyptic composition is decoded as kuṭhāru

sal ‘armourer workshop.’ eṛaka 'upraised arm' (Ta.). Rrebus:

eraka = copper (Ka.) Thus, the entire composition of these

glyphic elements relate to an armourer’s copper workshop. The

hairstyle of the woman is comparable to the wavy hair shown on

the Samarra bowl (Image 2. Six women, curl in hair, six scorpions)

The glyphic elements shown on the tablet are: copulation, vagina, crocodile. h180 tablet. Gyphic: ‘copulation’: kamḍa, khamḍa 'copulation' (Santali) Rebus: kammaṭi a coiner (Ka.); kampaṭṭam coinage, coin, mint (Ta.) kammaṭa = mint, gold furnace (Te.) Vikalpa: kaṇḍa ‘stone (ore)’.

Glyph: vagina: kuṭhi ‘vagina’; rebus: kuṭhi ‘smelting furnace’.

The descriptive glyphics indicates that the smelting furnace is

for stone (ore). This is distinquished from sand ore. Glyph:

‘crocodile’: karā ‘crocodile’. Rebus: khar ‘blacksmith’. kāru a

wild crocodile or alligator (Te.) mosale ‘wild crocodile or

alligator. S. ghaṛyālu m. ʻ long — snouted porpoise ʼ; N.

ghaṛiyāl ʻ crocodile’ (Telugu)ʼ; A. B. ghãṛiyāl ʻ alligator ʼ, Or.

Ghaṛiāḷa, H. ghaṛyāl, ghariār m. (CDIAL 4422) ² karavu,

n. < . Cf. grāha. Alligator; . ( . . 8, 9, 9). karā, n.

prob. Grāha. 1. A species of alligator; . ( .

. 2, 3, 9). 2. Male alligator; . ( .) karām

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Thus, the message of the glyphic composition is: kammaṭa kaṇḍa kuṭhi khar mint (coiner) stone (ore) smelting furnace, blacksmith.

A comparable glyphic composition is a naked woman seated with her legs spread out flanked by two scorpions. Cylinder-seal impression from Ur showing a squatting female. L. Legrain, 1936, Ur excavations, Vol. 3, Archaic Seal Impressions. This glyphic composition depicts a smelting furnace for stone ore as distinguished from a smelting

furnace for sand ore. meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.)

.bicha, bichā ‘scorpion’ (Assamese) Rebus: bica ‘stone ore’ (Mu.) sambr.o bica = gold ore

(Mundarica) meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.)

bhaṭa ‘six ’; rebus: bhaṭa ‘furnace’.

satthiya ‘svastika glyph’; rebus: satthiya ‘zinc’, jasta ‘zinc’ (Kashmiri), satva, ‘zinc’ (Pkt.);

kola ‘woman’; rebus: kol ‘iron’. kola ‘blacksmith’ (Ka.); kollë ‘blacksmith’ (Koḍ)

muha -- n. ʻmouth, faceʼ (Pkt.) m h ‘face’; rebus: m h ‘ingot’ (Mu.)

kul ‘tiger’ (Santali); kōlu id. (Te.) kōlupuli = Bengal tiger (Te.) [ kōlhā ] [kōlhēṃ] A jackal

(Marathi) rebus: kol ‘furnace, forge’ (Kuwi) kol ‘alloy of five metals, pañcaloha’ (Tamil) kol

‘working in iron, blacksmith’; kollaṉ ‘blacksmith’ (Tamil).

ṭagara = tabernae montana (Skt.) ṭagara ‘antelope’; rebus: ṭagara ‘tin’. Cf. cognate: tamkāru,

damgar ‘merchant’(Sumerian).

ḍ gar ‘horned cattle’ (K.) rebus: ḍāṅgar ‘blacksmith’ (H.) damgar ‘merchant, trader’(Sumerian).

Sources for the images:

Image 1. The Samarra bowl (ca. 4000 BC) at on exhibit at the Pergamon museum, Berlin. The bowl was

excavated as Samarra by Ernst Herzfeld in the 1911-1914 campaign, and described in a 1930

publication. The design consists of a rim, a circle of eight fish, and four fish swimming towards the center

being caught by four birds. At the center is a swastika symbol. (Ernst Herzfeld, Die vorgeschichtlichen

Töpfereien von Samarra, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra 5, Berlin 1930.)

Image 2. Women with flowing hair and scorpions, Samarra, Iraq. After Ernst Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen

von Samarra V: Die vorgeschichtischenTopfereien, Univ. of Texas Press, pl. 30. Courtesy Dietrich

Reimer. This image is discussed in Denise Schmandt-Besserat, When writing met art, p.19. “The design

features six humans in he center of the bowl and six scorpions around the inner rim. The six identical

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anthropomorphic figures, shown frontally, are generally interpreted as females because of their wide hips,

large thighs, and long, flowing hair…Six identical scorpions, one following after the other in a single line,

circle menacingly around the women.”

Image 3. “The Warka Vase or the Uruk Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple

complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al

Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Like the Narmer Palette from Egypt, it is one of the earliest

surviving works of narrative relief sculpture, dated to c. 3,200–3000 BC. The vase was discovered as a

collection of fragments by German Assyriologists in their sixth excavation season at Uruk in 1933/1934. It

is named after the modern village of Warka - known as Uruk to the ancient Sumerians.” 5

Some examples of use of comparable hieroglyphs frp, Indus writing corpora may be cited:

Chanhu-daro Seal obverse and reverse. The oval sign of

this Jhukar culture seal is comparable to other

inscriptions. Fig. 1 and 1a of Plate L. After Mackay, 1943.

The hieroglyphs of the seal relate representations of bun

ingots to two orthographic representations of ‘antelopes’:

one is shown walking, the other is shown with head

turned backwards. A flower is shown, perhaps, a representation of

tabernae Montana.

Stamp seal from Susa , at Louvre Museum. “Susa is one of the oldest

known settlements of the world, possibly founded about 4200 BC,

although the first traces of an inhabited village have been dated to ca.

7000 BCE. The seal depicts two goat-antelopes head to tail, outside an

oval.”6

Tin bun ingot. Late Bronze Age, 10th-9th century B.C.E. Salcombe shipwreck, 300

yards off the South Devon coast, England, 2009.7

Cylinder seal: lion and sphinx over an antelope8

The depiction of a bull’s head together with an antelope is significant

and recalls the association of bull’s head with oxhide ingots. The

antelope looking backwards is flanked by a lion (with three dots at

the back of the head) and a winged animal (tiger?)

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Bhirrana4

Allograph: Kur. xolā tail. Malt. qoli id. (DEDR 2135). [The ‘short-tail’ is a hieroglyph

which is ligatured to an ‘antelope’ – as a hieroglyph read rebus. Such a ligatured-tail

evolved into a ‘sign’ of the Indus script which appears on inscribed copper-tablets.]

Rebus: kol ‘working in iron (metal), blacksmith (in this case, tin-smith)’. baṭa ‘six’

(hence six short strokes)(G.); rebus: bhaṭa ‘furnace, smelter’ (Santali). The stalk in

front of the antelope is explained rebus: kolmo ‘rice-plant’(Santali); rebus: kolami ‘smithy/forge’ (Te.) The

antelope orthography shows a ‘ram’: tagara ‘ram’; if the plant is tabernae montana, tagaraka ‘tabernae

montana’; rebus: tagara ‘tin’. The seal shows an artisan-merchant who has a smelter to produce tin

ingots.Antelope: meḷh ‘goat’ (Br.) Rebus: meṛha, meḍhi ‘merchant’s clerk; (G.) meḍho ‘one who helps a

merchant’ vi.138 ‘vaṇiksahāyah’ (deśi. Hemachandra). Cf. meluhha-m h > mleccha-mukha ‘copper

(ingot)’.

“The earliest (Indus) inscriptions date back to 3500 BC.”9 h1522A

sherd. Slide 124. Inscribed Ravi sherd. The origins of Indus

writing can now be traced to the Ravi Phase (c. 3300-2800 BCE)

at Harappa. Some inscriptions were made on the bottom of the

pottery before firing. Other inscriptions such as this one were

made after firing. This inscription (c. 3300 BCE) appears to be

three plant symbols arranged to appear almost anthropomorphic. The trident looking projections on these

symbols seem to set the foundation for later symbols…

The glyph is tabernae montana, ‘mountain tulip’. A soft-stone flask, 6 cm. tall, from

Bactria (northern Afghanistan) showing a winged female deity (?) flanked by two

flowers similar to those shown on the comb from Tell Abraq.10 Ivory comb with

Mountain Tulip motif and dotted circles. TA 1649 Tell Abraq.11

Susa pot, from Meluhha, with metal artifacts. The pot has an inscription, painted

with ‘fish’ hieroglyph.12

Meluhha and contributions to tin and zinc

alloys

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[quote]13 “...the earliest brass in the world was in the Harappan site of Lothal and then in the early PGW

site of Atranjikhera. The primacy of zinc metallurgy in India is established by three kinds of evidences: (a)

second millennium BCE radiocarbon dating of zinc ore mine in Southern Rajasthan, (b) fourth century

BCE brass vase in Taxila assaying 34% zinc, and (c) second century AD literature of Nagarjuna

describing distillation of zinc…(paper) details…large scale zinc manufacture in medieval Zawar and the

unique phenomenon of a technology transfer from India to the western world…The earliest method of

making brass was possibly the cementation process in which finely divided copper fragments were

intimately mixed with roasted zinc ore (oxide) and reducing agent, such as charcoal, and heated to 1000

degrees C in a sealed crucible. Zinc vapour formed dissolved into the copper fragments yielding a poor

quality brazz, zinc percentage of which could not be easily controlled. Fusion of zinc with copper

increases the strength, hardness and toughness of the latter. When the alloy is composed of 10-18%

zinc, it has a pleasing golden yellow colour. It can also take very high polish and literally glitter like gold.

For this property, brass has been widely used for casting statuary, covering temple roofs, fabricating

vessels, etc…Lothal (2200-1500 BCE) showed one highly oxidized antiquity (No. 4189), which assayed

70.7# copper, 6.04# zinc, 0.9% Fe and 6.04% acid-soluble component (probably carbonate, a product of

atmospheric corrosion)…Most of the brass samples in ancient India contained variable proportions of Zn,

Sn and Pb…During the Harappan era, copper used to be alloyed with tin and arsenic; since these were

scarce commodities, alternative alloying elements had to be looked for. Artisans in the Rajasthan-Gujarat

region might have stumbled on to zinc ore deposit as a new source of alloying element…(Taxila vase BM

215-284)…dated to the 4th century BCE. This brass sample contains 34.34% zinc, 4.25% Sn, 3.0% Pb,

1.77% and 0.4% nickel. This is very strong evidence for the availability of metallic sinc in the 4th century

BCE. Possibly India was the first to make this metal zinc (rasaka) by the distillation process, as practiced

for other metal mercury (rasa)...The pseudo-Aristotelian work, ‘On marvelous things heard’ mentioned:

“They also say that amongst the Indians the bronze is so bright, clean and free from corrosion that it is

indistinguishable from gold, but that amongst the cups of Darius there is a considerable number that

could not be distinguished from gold or bronze except by color.”...The Indian emphasis was on the ‘gold-

like’ brass and not on the zinc metal…The discovery of three important hoards of metallic art objects at

Mahudi of north Gujarat, Lilvadeva (north-east) and Akota of central Gujarat, dated between 6th and 11th

centuries AD, proved that the artisans there had developed four varieties of alloys: (a) bronze, (b) zinc-

bronze, (c) lead brass, and (d) conventional brass…The technical term ārakūṭa for brass persisted

through centuries and we find this mentioned in the 4th century AD Jaina text Angavijja (as hārakūḍa) and

also in Amarakośa (450 AD)…Pliny mentioned the Latin term aurichalcum (golden copper), made in India

from cadmia, identified as calamine or the zinc ore. Samuel Beal suggested that the name cadmia came

from Calamina, a port at the mouth of the Indus, which negotiated the export of the ore or the alloy of

zinc. Ball, however, suggested that the port was Calliana or Kalyan near Bombay. The sixth century AD

traveler Sopater had mentioned Calliana exporting brass…The earliest reference to zinc as a metl is

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found in Nagarjuna’s Rasa-Ratnākara. In one passage (RR 3) it was mentioned: “What wonder is that

rasaka (zinc or zinc ore) roasted with three parts of śulva (copper) converts the latter into gold”. Actually,

this was gold-coloured 25% zinc-brass, also known as pīta-tāla (pitala) or yellow alloy.”…jast (derived

from Sanskrit jaśada or zinc)…On brass and zinc metallurgy, the primacy of India in the ancient and

medieval world is now beyond any dispute.” [unquote]

[quote]14 "The first smelting of iron [ore] may have taken place as early as 5000 BC" at Samarra,

Mesopotamia,15 but more commonly early iron was recovered from fallen meteors (yielding iron with a

characteristic 4+% nickel content). By the middle of the fourth millennium BC, "both texts and objects

reveal the presence of iron" in Mesopotamia,16 from where the Jaredites departed. Just possibly they

brought with them to the New World technical knowledge of that metallurgy. Sporadically throughout the

Bronze Age (about 3500 BC–1000 BC) in the Near East, wrought (nonmeteoric) iron objects were being

produced,17 along with continued use of the meteoric type.18 Yet details of the history at that time are

poorly known. The find of an iron artifact from Slovakia dated to the 17th century BC leads one

researcher to lament "how little we actually know about the use of iron during the second millennium

BCE."19 Steel is "iron that has been combined with carbon atoms through a controlled treatment of

heating and cooling."20 Yet "the ancients possessed in the natural (meteoric) nickel-iron alloy a type of

steel that was not manufactured by mankind before 1890."21 (It has been estimated that 50,000 tons of

meteoritic material falls on the earth each day, although only a fraction of that is recoverable.)22 By 1400

BC, smiths in Armenia had discovered how to carburize iron by prolonged heating in contact with carbon

(derived from the charcoal in their forges). This produced martensite, which forms a thin layer of steel on

the exterior of the object (commonly a sword) being manufactured.23 Iron/steel jewelry, weapons, and

tools (including tempered steel) were definitely made as early as 1300 BC (and perhaps earlier), as

attested by excavations in present-day Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, and

Jordan.24 "Smiths were carburizing [i.e., making steel] intentionally on a fairly large scale by at least 1000

BC in the Eastern Mediterranean area."25 [unquote]

Tokens of Susa evolve into hieroglyphic Indus writing in ancient Near East

10

Shape of a token representing one ingot of metal, Susa, Iran, ca. 3300

BCE.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat, 2009, Tokens and writing: the cognitive development, Scripta, Vol. 1

(September 2009): 145-154

The development of the power of abstraction as illustrated by the evolution of counting in the ancient

Near East. Tokens indicates that counting was first done concretely in one-to-one correspondence. The

claytokens, that appeared in the Near East about 7500 BC, abstracted the goods they represented. For

example a cone abstracted a measure of grain. About 3300 BC, when tokens were kept in envelopes,

markings on envelopes abstracted the tokens held inside. Abstract numbers are the culmination of the

process, following the invention of writing.

Excerpts:

‘For example, the number of token shapes which was limited to about 12 around 7500 BC, increased to

some 350 around 3500 BC, when urban workshops started contributing to the redistribution economy.

Some of the new tokensstood for raw materials such as wool and metal while others represented finished

products, among them textiles, garments, jewelry, bread, beer and honey (Fig. 2).’ (p.148, ibid.)

Bronze-age advance in accounting for metalware and metallurgical processing categories using Indus

writing

The corpora of inscriptions with Indus writing has now grown to over 5,000 and the evidence, together

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with the lexemes of Indian sprachbund provide a method for validating the rebus readings of hundreds of

hieroglyphs to categorise and account for work-in-process transactions from furnace or smelter to the

forge (on workers' platforms) and for compiling metalware catalogs of minerals used, metals and alloys

smelted or forged.

Hundreds of hieroglyphs are read rebus using the substrate lexemes of Indian sprachbund to decipher

the inscriptions in Indus writing.26

On this seal, ayo 'fish' read rebus ayas 'metal'; ḍangar

'bull' read rebus ḍangar 'blacksmith'; koṭ 'horn; red rebus: khoṭ 'alloy'; khoṇḍ 'young bull-calf' read rebus

khuṇḍ '(metal) turner'.

The ayo 'fish' hieroglyph thus adequately categorizes the metalware

contents of a pot discovered in Susa.

m1429B. Glyphs: crocodile + fish ayakāra

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‘blacksmith’ (Pali)kāru a wild crocodile or alligator (Te.) aya 'fish' (Mu.) The method of ligaturing enables

creation of compound messages through Indus writing inscriptions.

Conclusions

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The continued use of hieroglyphs of Indus writing together with cuneiform texts is a characteristic feature

of the evolution of writing in ancient Near East as it progressed from the use of tokens and bullae to the

use of glyphs to denote many metallurgical categories. A method of rebus readings evidenced for Narmer

palette28 in Egypt applied to the Indus writing glyphs reveals Meluhha (mleccha) substrate lexemes29 from

Indian sprachbund.

1 Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia

2 The Meluḫḫa Village: Evidence of Acculturation of Harappan Traders in Late ThirdMillennium

Mesopotamia, Simo Parpola, Asko Parpola, Robert H. Brunswig, Jr.Source:Journal of the Economic and

Social History of the Orient, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May, 1977),pp. 129-165. 3 http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/vase.html

4 S. Kalyanaraman, 2013, Indus writing in ancient Near East: Corpora and a dictionary, Sarasvati

Research Center

13

5 http://arthistorypart1.blogspot.in/2011/01/sumerian-art-warka-vase.html cf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warka_Vase

6 http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0809/0809.3566.pdf (Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, 2008, Symmetries in

images on ancient seals.)

7 Jim Tyson, South West Maritime Archaeological Group http://www.archaeology.org/1005/etc/artifact.html

8 Period: Late Cypriot II Date: ca. 14th century B.C.E. Geography: Cyprus Culture: Cypriot Medium:

Black-grey steatite Dimensions: 0.83 in. (2.11 cm) Classification: Stone-Cylinder Seal Credit Line: The

Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76 Accession Number: 74.51.4313 This artwork is

currently on display in Gallery 173 Said to be from Amathus, Cyprus. 1865–1872, found in Cyprus by

General Luigi Palma di Cesnola; acquired by the Museum in 1874, purchased from General Luigi Palma

di Cesnola http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/30000008

9 http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/330000/audio/_334517_meadow.ram

10 After Pottier, M.H., 1984, Materiel funeraire e la Bactriane meridionale de l'Age du Bronze, Paris,

Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations: plate 20.150. 11

D.T. Potts, South and Central Asian elements at Tell Abraq (Emirate of Umm al-Qaiwain, United Arab

Emirates), c. 2200 BC—AD 400, in Asko Parpola and Petteri Koskikallio, South Asian Archaeology 1993:

, pp. 615-666. 12

Images courtesy: Maurizio Tosi in an international conference in New Delhi, November 2010 organised

by Draupati Trust.

13 Indian Journal of History of Science, 28(4), 1993. Arun Kumar Biswas, The primacy of India in ancient

brass and zinc metallurgy

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5c_309.pdf

14 http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=15&num=2&id=423 Out of the Dust: Steel in

Early Metallurgy John L. Sorenson Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Volume - 15, Issue - 2, Pages:

108–9, 127 Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, 2006

15 Nikolass J. van der Merwe and Donald H. Avery, "Pathways to Steel," American Scientist 70 (1982):

146.

16 Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, "Early Metallurgy in Mesopotamia," in The Beginning of the Use of Metals

and Alloys: Papers from the Second International Conference on the Beginning of the Use of Metals and

Alloys, Zhengzhou, China, 21–26 October 1986, ed. Robert Maddin (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988), 31.

17 See Van der Merwe and Avery, "Pathways to Steel," 146.

14

18 See Jane C. Waldbaum, "The First Archaeological Appearance of Iron and the Transition to the Iron

Age," inThe Coming of the Age of Iron, ed. Theodore A. Wertime and James D. Muhly (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1980), 72–73.

19 James D. Muhly, "Mining and Metalwork in Ancient Western Asia," in Civilizations of the Ancient Near

East, ed. J. M. Sasson et al. (New York: Scribner, 1995), 3:1517.

20 Lenore O. Keene Congdon, "Steel in Antiquity: A Problem in Terminology," in Studies Presented to

George M. A. Hanfmann, ed. David Gordon Mitten et al. (Cambridge: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard

University, 1971), 18–19.

21 Robert James Forbes, Metallurgy in Antiquity: A Notebook for Archaeologists and

Technologists (Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1950), 402.

22 See Harvey Harlow Nininger, Find a Falling Star (New York: Paul S. Erikson, 1972), 238.

23 See Congdon, "Steel in Antiquity," 24–25; D. Davis et al., "A Steel Pick from Mount Adir in

Palestine," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44/1 (1985): 42; and Muhly, "Mining and Metalwork," 3:1515.

24 See Patrick E. McGovern, "The Innovation of Steel in Transjordan," Journal of Metals 40/7 (1988): 50;

Jane C. Waldbaum, From Bronze to Iron: The Transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the

Eastern Mediterranean (Göteborg, Sweden: Paul Åström, 1978), 54; and Robert Maddin et al., "How the

Iron Age Began,"Scientific American 237 (1977): 122.

25 Tamara S. Wheeler and Robert Maddin, "Metallurgy and Ancient Man," in Coming of the Age of Iron,

ed. Wertime and Muhly, 116. 26

S. Kalyanaraman, 2013, Indus writing in ancient Near East: Corpora and a dictionary, Sarasvati

Research Center 27

http://www.bibleorigins.net/dilmunmapseriduurseashorepersiangulf.html (Map) 28

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/narmer/ 29

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/html/alphaseq1.htm