[LINK] "A step toward unraveling the mystery of Indus Valley script, and printing"

[rfmcdonald]

I found this article from The Age yesterday, and was impressed. Finding large copper plates dating from the height of the INdus Valley civilization with long inscriptions in the as-yet undeciphered Indus script, with origins that could be authenticated would be spectacular. If. This blog points out the issues involved.

Dr Rick Willis acquired and studied a set of small copper printing plates from the Indus valley, in modern day Pakistan. Using his scientific research capabilities he studied these plates and investigated archeological evidence related to this region and era.

His conclusion is that these Indus valley copper printing plates are circa 2300 BCE which means they predate what is commonly thought of as the advent of printing using Chinese woodblocks developed around 600 to 700 BCE.

Dr Willis and his co-author Professor Vasant Shinde, a well-known archaeologist from Deccan College, in Pune India, have written an extensive account that is due to be published very shortly online in the e-journal Ancient Asia.

[. . .]

As a collector of archeological artifacts, Dr Willis purchased a set of nine unusual copper plates, each no larger than a credit card, from the Indus valley. His purchase was from a validated private source that was keen for these artifacts to be studied.

[. . .]

“One of the major scientific hurdles was to date the copper plates to pre-2000 BCE to ensure these were not fakes. In fact, as Indus Valley civilisation was not really discovered until the 1920s, any recognisable artifact that could be reliably dated prior to the 20th century would have to be genuine.

“I was hopeful of being innovative and using carbon dating with the plates. Metal artifacts are notoriously difficult to date, as isotopic dating methods are rarely appropriate. However, the copper plates had quite extensive corrosion on the backs, and ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) has agreed to attempt to carbon date any copper carbonates. The sad news was that whoever had unearthed the plates in Pakistan had cleaned them with acid, likely to separate the plates that had become fused together as they reacted to soil and water over 4000 years in the ground. We found that all the carbonates had been destroyed by the acid.

“So with the kind help of the Bio 21 institute we used a scanning electron microscope with a microprobe to look at the ‘micro’ features like pitting that is a feature of ancient metals. They were consistent with existing metallurgical items of that era. We also investigated the metal composition and impurities of the copper plates, using x-ray fluorescence, and they were totally also consistent with the variable levels of that era.”