Language of the Ancient Indus Civilization Discovered

The language of one of the most mysterious civilizations – The Indus Valley Civilization – is reported to have been discovered by a team of University of Washington in Seattle and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. The Indus civilization flourished in isolation 4,500 years ago along the border of what is now eastern Pakistan, but almost no historical information exists about the people and their long-lost community. Using a computer programme, the team compared patterns of Indus symbols with those found in known languages and other information systems, such as DNA and computer languages. Archaeologists working in the region have unearthed a rich hoard of artifacts, including amulets, seals and ceramic tablets, many of which are embellished with the unusual symbols. When the researchers ran the analysis on a compilation of Indus texts, they found that the patterns of symbols were strikingly similar to those in spoken languages.