The famous Pashupati seal seems to depict the Hindu god Shiva, sitting in a yogic pose. The Indus script, which remains undeciphered, bears witness to the early history of writing.

Steatite seal with humped bull, Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro, 2500–2000 BC. Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images ...

Indus River Valley civilization seals on display at the British Museum World Imaging While the Indus script is still far from being deciphered, the evidence favors the theory that the script is ...

More than 5,300 years ago, a civilization emerged along the lush basins of the Indus River in present-day northwest India and Pakistan. Its residents, mostly farmers and traders, lived in cities ...

The government of Tamil Nadu has announced a $1 million reward for anyone who can successfully decipher the cryptic script of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). Chief Minister M.K. Stalin ...

image: Examples of the Indus script. The four square artifacts with animal and human iconography are stamp seals that measure one or two inches per side. On the top right are three elongated seals ...

In 2004, perhaps out of befuddlement and frustration, a group of scholars declared that the script marked only rudimentary pictograms and that the Indus Valley people were functionally illiterate.

"The Indus script has been known for almost 130 years," said Rao, an Indian native with a longtime personal interest in the subject. "Despite more than 100 attempts, it has not yet been deciphered.

To encourage the decipherment of the ancient Indus script, the government of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, announced a massive cash prize for anyone—scholar or amateur—who can crack ...