SEALS and SCRIPT

SEALS
Every merchant or mercantile family probably had a seal bearing an emblem, often of a religious character, and a name or brief inscription. The standard Harappa seal was a square or oblong plaque made of steatite stone. The Mesopotamians employed cylinder seals; one or tWo such seals have been found in Mohenjo-daro. The primary purpose of the seal was probably to mark the ownership of property, but they may have also served as amulets.

SCRIPT
The Indus script had some 270 characters, which were pictographic in origin, but which had an ideographic or
syllabic character. The script has not been deciphered so far,
. but overlaps of letters on some of the potsherds from Kalibangan show that writing was 'boustrophedon' or from right to left and from left to right in alternate lines. We are not certain about the writing media, but a small pot found at Chanhu-daro is regarded as an inkwell.