Image: Iravatham Mahadevan
Image: Iravatham Mahadevan

This ideograph is the word work with a different orientation. The up and down motion of the word work now becomes side to side movement. It is the noun labour or labourer.  This Indus sign shares a common root with the Chinese character gōng 工.


Illustrative Text Reference:

Lothal: Seal: L-39 a: Jagat Pati Joshi and Asko Parpola, 1987: Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 1: Page 246: Collections in India: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.


Image Credit:

Indus Script Sign Number 2665: List of Sign Variants: Iravatham Mahadevan, 1977: The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables: The Director General Archaeological Survey of India.