Module: General Practice
Q30: Consider the following statements regarding the enigmatic nature and the attempted decipherment of the Harappan script:
1. The script remains completely undeciphered to this day, which is the primary reason it is referred to as an "enigmatic" script by historians.
2. The animal motif prominently carved on the seals alongside the writing was likely intended to convey a specific meaning or identity to those who were illiterate.
3. In 1924, Director-General John Marshall successfully deciphered the core vowels of the script by using a bilingual trade document discovered in Mesopotamia.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. The animal motif prominently carved on the seals alongside the writing was likely intended to convey a specific meaning or identity to those who were illiterate.
3. In 1924, Director-General John Marshall successfully deciphered the core vowels of the script by using a bilingual trade document discovered in Mesopotamia.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: A
🎯 Quick Answer:
Option A is the correct answer because statement 3 is a historical hallucination; the script has never been deciphered.Structural Breakdown: A typical Harappan seal contains a line of script at the top and a deeply carved motif (usually an animal like a unicorn, bull, or elephant) in the center.
The script itself has resisted all modern computational and linguistic attempts at translation.
Historical/Related Context: The Rosetta Stone allowed scholars to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs because it featured the same text in known languages (Greek). To date, no such bilingual text (a document written in both Harappan and a known language like Sumerian) has ever been discovered.
Causal Reasoning: Statement 3 is entirely false.
John Marshall announced the discovery of the civilization in 1924, but he did not decipher the script.
Because widespread illiteracy was likely common despite the presence of writing, the visual animal motif on the seal was a crucial, non-verbal communication tool.
It allowed an illiterate recipient to instantly recognize the source, guild, or family from which the goods originated, bridging the gap between the literate administration and the common workforce.