Her: Earliest Language

[Sonney Lalwani <kamal@LALWANI.DEMON.CO.UK>]

BBC News has a report of the Harappa site having the earliest known
examples of writing.

I've included the text of the report below, but you can see pictures at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_334000/334517.stm

Cheers

Sonney

'Earliest writing' found

The fragments of pottery are about 5,500 years old

Exclusive by BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse

The first known examples of writing may have been unearthed at an
archaeological dig in Pakistan.

So-called 'plant-like' and 'trident-shaped' markings have been found on
fragments of pottery dating back 5500 years.

 They were found at a site called Harappa in the region where the great
Harappan or Indus civilisation flourished four and a half thousand years ago.

Harappa was originally a small settlement in 3500 BC but by 2600 BC it had
developed into a major urban centre.

 The earliest known writing was etched onto jars before and after firing.
Experts believe they may have indicated the contents of the jar or be signs
associated with a deity.

According to Dr Richard Meadow of Harvard University, the director of the
Harappa Archaeological Research Project, these primitive inscriptions found
on pottery may pre-date all other known writing.

Last year it was suggested that the oldest writing might have come from Egypt.

Clay tablets containing primitive words were uncovered in southern Egypt at
the tomb of a king named Scorpion.

They were carbon-dated to 3300-3200 BC. This is about the same time, or
slightly earlier, to the primitive writing developed by the Sumerians of
the Mesopotamian civilisation around 3100 BC.

"It's a big question as to if we can call what we have found true writing,"
he told BBC News Online, "but we have found symbols that have similarities
to what became Indus script.

 "One of our research aims is to find more examples of these ancient
symbols and follow them as they changed and became a writing system," he
added.

One major problem in determining what the symbols mean is that no one
understands the Indus language. It was unique and is now dead.

Dr Meadow points out that nothing similar to the 'Rosetta Stone' exists for
the Harappan text.

The Rosetta Stone, housed in the British museum since 1802, is a large slab
of black basalt uniquely inscribed with the same text in both Egyptian
hieroglyphs and Greek.

Its discovery allowed researchers to decipher the ancient Egyptian script
for the first time.

The Harappan language died out and did not form the basis of other languages.

 "So probably we will never know what the symbols mean," Dr Meadow told BBC
News Online from Harappa.

What historians know of the Harappan civilisation makes them unique. Their
society did not like great differences between social classes or the
display of wealth by rulers. They did not leave behind large monuments or
rich graves.

They appear to be a peaceful people who displayed their art in smaller
works of stone.

Their society seems to have petered out. Around 1900 BC Harappa and other
urban centres started to decline as people left them to move east to what
is now India and the Ganges.

This discovery will add to the debate about the origins of the written word.

It probably suggests that writing developed independently in at least three
places - Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa between 3500 BC and 3100 BC.