Semantic scope of Indus inscriptions comprising taxation, trade and craft licensing, commodity control and access control: archaeological and script-internal evidence

Abstract

This article studies the semantic scope of the yet undeciphered Indus script inscriptions, which are mostly found on tiny seals, sealings, and tablets. Building on previous structural analyses, which reveal that Indus script was semasiographic and/or logographic in nature, this study analyses the combinatorial patterns of Indus script signs, and the geographical distribution of the inscriptions, to establish that the inscriptions did not encode any proper noun, such as anthroponyms, toponyms, or names of specific organizations. Analyzing various archaeological contexts of the inscribed objects—e.g., seals found concentrated near city gates (e.g., Harappa), craft workshops (e.g., Chanhu-daro), and public buildings (e.g., Mohenjo-daro), often along with standardized Indus weights that were used for taxation; sealings attached to various storage containers and locking systems of “warehouse” chambers as indicated by their reverse-side impressions (e.g., the sealings of Lothal “warehouse”); inscribed sealing-pendants of Kanmer, conjectured to be passports/gate-passes by archaeologists; and seals with identical inscriptions often found from distant settlements—this study claims that the inscribed stamp-seals were primarily used for enforcing certain rules involving taxation, trade/craft control, commodity control and access control. Considering typological and functional differences between the seals and tablets, and analyzing certain numerical and metrological notations (, , , ) typically found at the reverse sides of many two-sided tablets whose obverse sides contain seal-like inscriptions, this study argues that such tablets were possibly trade/craft/commodity-specific licenses issued to tax-collectors, traders, and artisans. These reverse-side tablet inscriptions possibly encoded certain standardized license fees for certain fixed license slabs, whereas their obverse-side inscriptions specified the commercial activities licensed to the tablet-bearers. These seals/tablets were possibly issued by certain guilds of merchants/artisans, and/or region-based rulers or governing bodies, who collaborated in the integration phase of IVC, to standardize certain taxation rules and trade/craft regulations across settlements. The seal/tablet iconographies might have been the emblems of the guilds, rulers, and/or governing bodies.