Image: Lynn Fawcett
Image: Lynn Fawcett

This ideograph is a combination of the words up and down, signifying the movement involved in work. Hence, it is the noun work or worker. The Indus sign shares a common root with the Chinese character gōng 工.


Illustrative Text References:

Rahman-dheri: Pottery Graffiti, incised: Rhd-171 A: Sayid Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Asko Parpola, 1991: Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 2: Page 368: Collections in Pakistan: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

 

Rahman-dheri: Pottery Graffiti, incised: Rhd-172 A: Sayid Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Asko Parpola, 1991: Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 2: Page 368: Collections in Pakistan: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

Comments:

Each of the examples is a single Indus sign, which appears to have been used as a potter's mark. In both instances, the symbol is incised on the lower side of a broken pot near the base.

It is assumed that the correct orientation for the character would be that when the pot was sitting upright on its base.


Image Credit:

Work: Lynn Fawcett, 2017.