Indus script

[Michael Witzel]

George,

the "rhetoric" is due to the fact that the archaeologists etc.  
involved have spent much of their lives and careers(!) on this topic.

A scientific theory should be just that -- and should be objected to  
stringent counterchecks and falsification.

Another important point is that many cannot imagine a highly  
developed civilization as existing without a script that represents  
spoken language (such as sentences).

Well, what about the Inca/Moche etc., or Mexican Highland ones? Or  
closer to home, the Bactria-Margiana (Oxus) and E. Iranian Jiroft  
ones?  I still have to meet someone to deny "high status" to the Inca  
civilization.

In short: built in, pathway dependent views of the 20th century.

Cheers!
Michael

PS> About shooting: even that has been threatened, not just shouting...

On Apr 27, 2009, at 9:34 AM, George Hart wrote:

> I can't help calling to mind the Beale treasure:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers
>
> I had a great uncle who spent his entire life searching for this  
> treasure.  He once hypnotized someone who claimed he could see the  
> treasure under a tree.  He tried to dig it up (fruitlessly), and  
> later learned the landowner almost shot him thinking he was a  
> thief.  Fortunately, people searching for the key to the IV  
> symbols? script? writing? are not likely to be shot, though some of  
> the rhetoric makes me wonder.  George Hart
>
> On Apr 27, 2009, at 6:13 AM, Patricia Greer wrote:
>
>> A day before this topic hit our list, I received an e-mail  
>> alerting me to an
>> article in a British newspaper about Rao's tremendous "breakthrough"
>> announced in Science -- the e-mail was from the Arya Samaj!  I  
>> have no idea
>> how they got my academic address.
>>
>> Patricia Greer

============
Michael Witzel
witzel at fas.harvard.edu
<www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>

Dept. of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
1 Bow Street,
Cambridge MA 02138, USA

phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295 (voice & messages), 496 8570, fax 617 - 496  
8571;
my direct line:  617- 496 2990