Image: Iravatham Mahadevan
Image: Iravatham Mahadevan

This is the symbol for a hank of yarn with the addition of a pair of hands. Hence, it is an ideograph for the noun fibre use.


Illustrative Text Reference:

Harappa: Seal: H-144 a: Jagat Pati Joshi and Asko Parpola, 1987: Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 1: Page 201: Collections in India: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

Comment:

Inscription H-144 is interesting because it uses the merism weapons (bowstrings) and fine hangings to indicate that hanks of silk had a wide range of uses. H-144 was a seal. Therefore, it suggests that some silk was shipped as hanks of raw silk, before being subject to further processing at its destination.


Image Credit:

Indus Script Sign Number 4280: List of Sign Variants: Iravatham Mahadevan, 1977: The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables: The Director General Archaeological Survey of India.