Staf Reporter
The leading archaeologists have asked the Sindh government to bring back the pottery
excavated from Moenjo Daro a century ago, which is currently in Lahore so that more research can be
carried out. “Around 150 translations of the script of the Indus Valley civilisation have been published
but we cannot prove which one is correct,” said Dr Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an American archaeologist.
“We are in search of proof, which is only possible through studying what has been excavated.”Speaking
on the first day of the Indus Script Conference, Dr Kenoyer asserted that the nature of the writing in
different contexts suggested that the script was quite versatile and could be used to encode a range of
messages which would remain undecipherable until we discover a bi-lingual tablet of some sort.He
emphasised that the inscribed material on the pottery, such as graffiti, is essential for further our
understanding of the seals and inscriptions from the civilisation, but it has largely been
overlooked.Meanwhile, Dr Andreas Fuls, an archaeologist from Germany, highlighted the value of the
seals, which he said were very special. “There should be a library that we have not yet found,” he
said.“More research needs to be done to find more written work and to know what the Indus Valley
civilisation was.”He pointed out that nobody knew about the civilisation’s religion or its governing
system. “In the future, we will hopefully have more information,” he added. He said that there was a
need for a second information system, explaining that with the help of one language, archaeologists
could understand another.Archaeologist Dr Kaleemullah Lashari, starting the discussion, said that many
good attempts had been made at deciphering the script. But, he added, they hadn’t convinced scholars
because they fell short of answering questions about the ancient civilisation. He was of the view that the
approach taken by earlier attempts at deciphering the script missed the archaeological understanding of
the chronological distribution of the inscribed material.
