Complete Geometric Classification
A comprehensive catalog of Indus Valley signs, organized by geometric principles and interpreted through the Epoch Model framework.
Think of the Indus script as having three main "flavors" of symbols:
S- (Things): These are like nouns in English. They represent physical stuff you can see and touch: fish, jars, people, bulls. They're "manifest" because they exist in the physical world.
S+ (Actions/States): These are like verbs and adjectives. They describe what things do or how they are. They represent the "observer's" perspective - how we interact with or perceive things.
M+ (Amounts): These are numbers and quantity words. They tell you "how much" or "how many." They add weight or emphasis to other symbols.
Together, these three types let the Harappans write complete thoughts: "Three (M+) fish (S-) belong to (S+) [person name]" - just like we might write on a business card or shipping label today!
The counting foundation of the script
The Harappans counted using simple vertical lines, just like we might tally things with hash marks. But each number had a deeper meaning:
1 = Unity, the starting point. 2 = Duality, opposites (like hot/cold, day/night). 3 = The first "interesting" number that creates stability (like a three-legged stool). 5 = Human-centered (we have 5 fingers). 6 and 7 = Connected to star groups they could see in the night sky.
Think of it like how we use "dozen" for 12 eggs or "score" for 20 years - numbers can carry cultural meaning beyond just counting!
Recognizable objects from daily life
These symbols look like the actual things they represent - we call them "pictographs" (picture-writing). But the Harappans were clever: they chose objects whose shapes also encode mathematical principles!
The fish isn't just any fish - its shape is based on the "vesica piscis," a sacred geometry shape with special mathematical properties. The jar follows a parabolic curve (like water fountains or satellite dishes). Even the tree shows "fractal" branching - the same pattern repeating at different scales.
It's like if we designed an alphabet where the letter "O" was based on the mathematical circle, and "V" followed the angle of optimal roof construction. Form and function working together!
Pure mathematical forms
These are pure geometric shapes - not trying to look like real objects, but expressing mathematical ideas directly:
A circle represents completeness and cycles (like the sun's daily path or the seasons). A square means boundaries and property (like a fenced field). Triangles pointing up suggest rising or growth, while triangles pointing down suggest descent or water flowing down.
Think of them like the symbols in math: + means addition, ÷ means division. These geometric signs work the same way - they're visual operators that modify meaning!
Combined symbols with layered meaning
The Harappans combined basic symbols to create more complex meanings - like how we make compound words in English ("fire" + "place" = "fireplace").
Fish + 3 strokes doesn't mean "three fish." Instead, it's multiplying the fish's mathematical value (√3) by 3, which gives you about 5.2 - a number connected to star patterns. Fish + 6 strokes = √3 × 6 ≈ 10.4, which corresponds to the Pleiades star cluster (the "Seven Sisters," though only 6 are easily visible).
It's like using "dozen" in English: "a baker's dozen" doesn't mean 12 bakers, it means 13 items. The Harappans were doing mathematical operations through symbol combinations!
Signs that modify meaning like punctuation
These signs appear predominantly at the end of inscriptions, functioning as grammatical operators or case markers. They encode S+ (observer/action) states and tell us how to interpret the signs that come before them.
These are like the grammatical endings in other languages (like "-'s" for possession in English, or "-ed" for past tense). They almost always appear at the end of an inscription and tell us the relationship between things.
A circle with a dot means "belongs to" (possessive). An arrow means "sent to" or "going toward" (directional). A cup shape means "located at" or "contained in."
Think of them like punctuation marks or prepositions: they don't have much meaning on their own, but they're crucial for understanding the sentence structure!
The Big Picture: What makes this decipherment revolutionary is that we're not guessing at what the Harappans meant - we're reading their mathematical intent directly.
The same constant (κ) that appears in their rulers and weights shows up encoded in how their signs are structured. The same ratios (like 4:2:1 and √3) that governed their brick-making and city planning are built into their writing system.
It's as if an ancient civilization left us a message written in the digits of pi - we might not speak their language, but we can recognize the math, and that tells us they understood something profound about how reality works. The Harappans wrote in geometry because geometry is universal.