Harappan animal icons/inscriptions

[Steve Farmer]

I wrote:

 > >In light of what we've already found, Ferenc, does *any* evidence
> >remain of "different animals/same inscription" on separate seals?

Ferenc Ruzsa answered:

> I do not know - as we found, Mahadevan's identifications of the depicted
> creatures can sometimes be misleading. But I have no other material - so here
> is what I found there (just a sample, there may be others): four different
> texts, always on seals (the last one on seal impression), each appearing with
> the "unicorn", but also with some other animal as well.
>
Ferenc lists candidates from Mahadevan's Concordance, and adds:

> Steve, have you overlooked it ? I have actually sent you this off-list, on
> 02.08.

I do have this List, many already checked out by M. Witzel or me.
I'll doublecheck the data using all the sources I now have at
hand. As of now, despite Mahadevan's Concordance, no violations
of the "same animal/same inscription" rule have turned up that I
know about. Marshall 252/378 doesn't exactly qualify, as you've
suggested. I'll keep looking.

> >do you think that the number of
> >duplicates of inscriptions on the "bossed" seals argue against the
> >personal name thesis, as I conjectured?
>
> I do not have the relevant statistics yet - just a strong visual impression,
> and of course that can be pretty much misleading. I think that the
> overwhelming majority of the texts appear only once; BUT if you have a
> duplicate, chances are high that you find a third one - even as many as
> twenty. But it seems that the really long series are from tablets: copper in
> Mohenjo-daro, stone, terracotta or faience in Harappa.
> Perhaps someone else knows more about it? The data do seem interesting and
> relevant.

I'll see if I can find more too, as soon as I have time.

Steve Farmer