Seals, script and weights

The essentials

Harappan seals were usually made of steatite, a soft stone, and carved with an animal motif and signs of the script. They were used to facilitate long-distance communication: a bag of goods would be tied with rope, a knot covered with wet clay, and the seal pressed onto it. If the sealing was unbroken on arrival, the goods had not been tampered with. The sealing also conveyed the identity of the sender.

The Harappan script remains undeciphered. It was almost certainly not alphabetic, because it has too many signs — somewhere between about 375 and 400. It was written from right to left, as shown by some seals where the spacing is wider on the right and cramped on the left. Inscriptions are usually short; the longest has about 26 signs.

Key points

• Writing has been found on seals, copper tools, rims of jars, copper and terracotta tablets, jewellery and bone rods.
• Exchanges were regulated by a precise system of weights, usually made of chert, cubical in shape and without markings.
• Lower denominations followed a binary system: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on, up to 12,800; higher denominations followed the decimal system.
• Smaller weights were probably used for weighing jewellery and beads.
• Metal scale pans have also been found.

Exam tips

• Remember three facts about the script: undeciphered, not alphabetic (many signs), written right to left.
• Questions may ask for the next number in the binary weight sequence.

Common mistakes

• Saying the seal was itself used as money; it was used to seal goods and mark identity.
• Assuming the script had 26 letters like an alphabet; the inscriptions are short, not the sign list.