From counting to bronze-age accounting through Indus writing in ancient Near East

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From counting to bronze-age accounting through Indus
writing in ancient Near East

April 17, 2013

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 categorised 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 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 '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 kharo??i (cognate with harosheth
hagoyim 'smithy of nations') and brahmi 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.

Section 1: Tokens of Susa evolve into hieroglyphic Indus
writing in ancient Near East

Continues at:

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2013/04/tokens-of-susa-evolve-into-hieroglyphic.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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