History Forum / General / General Topics / January 2007

Parallels in Ancient Near East - Sarasvati glyphs: bronze
age metals trade

Forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman

[ Mon, 10 Apr 2006

Parallels in Ancient Near East - Sarasvati glyphs: bronze
age metals trade

The attached photo of taanach 'cult' stand shows two goats
flanking a tree in the middle register.

The 'standard' is from Tell ti'innik and dated to 10th cent
BCE. It is called taanach 'cult' stand.

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/Misc/cult.gif

Tell t'innik is in West Bank, SE of Megiddo in Israel. It
may be noted that two pure tin ingots with Sarasvati
heiroglyphs trade-marking them as  ranku bat.a, 'furnace
tin' were discovered at the port of Haifa, Israel.

This is a common motif not only in the ANE but also in
Meluhha (Indus valley). The artistic styles include showing
a mountain and a fig-leaf mounted on the summit.

I have prepared 86 slides on 'Art styles and themes in
Sarasvati hieroglyphs: parallels with Ancient Near East'.
It is based on the hypothesis that since Sarasvati
hieroglyphs represent repertoir of a smithy/mint, there is
a possibility that ANE glyphs also constitute a rebus
writing system related to bronze age trading. The parallels
may be related to contacts of mleccha (meluhha)
smiths/merchants with ANE artisans/traders.

The files (free http download):

File 1.
http://www.filefactory.com/?6fb136

File 2.  http://kalyan97.googlepages.com/LigaturedSarasvatihieroglyphs.pdf

Some examples (in addition to eagle seals/tablets) included
in File 1 are:

Cylinder seal of a lion attacking a mountain sheep. A fig-
leaf is shown (slide 11)

Three caprids. Tepe Yahya. Cylinder seal. (Lamberg-
Karlovsky 1971, pls. 4,5) and Two caprids flanking a
stepped platform (mountain) (slide 32)

Cylinder seal impression.  Mesospotamia. Gilgamesh and Ea-
bani. Bovine ligatured to human-faces flanking a mountain
with a fig-leaf on summit. (slide 79).

Some examples in File 2 are:

m1430 (Parpola)Mohenjodaro Tablet. Mountain topped by a
leaf, flanked by two goats. Parallel proto-elamite
glyptics. (slide 33)

What could the hieroglyphs connote?

In mleccha (indic language family), there are rebus
readings:

mr..eka  'goat' (Te.); melakkha 'copper' (Pali) ku_t.amu
'summit' (Te.); ku_t.am 'workshop' (Ta.) loa 'fig-leaf'
(Santali); lo 'metal' (Santali) kamar.kom 'ficus'
(Santali); kampat.t.am 'mint/smithy' (Ta.)

Why a pair of caprids?

barea = two, pair (Santali); bar.ea 'merchant' (Santali)

There is a possibility that meluhha(mleccha) - speakers had
contacts with ANE trading in metals during the bronze age.
Ligatures are concordant with early metal-alloy inventions.
It is apparent that bronze age trade and writing system are
related landmarks in the history of civilizations.

S. Kalyanaraman

Dharmo rakshati rakshitah

End of forwarded message from S. Kalyanaraman

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