Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 85

THE ALPHABET
Thus, according to some scholars (Gadd and Smith) the number of the characters of this script is 396; according to others (Langdon) 288, or (Hunter) 253. Smith has divided all the signs into three main groups: final signs, initial signs and numerals.
With about 300 symbols, the Indus Valley script cannot be either
VO
в А
VUS À
ver vena vaa və A wea fuera va vwa UM® V 20 Vomu
VA09
VX
UX 594) MAY@uvậ
Threomuar neste mum
aroma preko 4
* 19
tl @ma
VOX
7411
Fig. 43—Seal inscriptions from Indus Valley alphabetic or syllabic; on the other hand, the number of symbols would be too small for a purely ideographic script. For this and other reasons, it is probable that the script is partly ideographic and partly phonetic (probably syllabic), and that it contains also some determinative signs. Nearly all inscriptions being seal-inscriptions, it is probable that they