Indus Script

Hello. I have a secret for you. I am made of tiny, tiny pictures. Some of my shapes look like little fish swimming in a river. Some look like jars for holding water. Other shapes look like people with their arms stretched out wide. You can find me on small, smooth stones and on soft pieces of clay. I am a secret message from a very, very long time ago. I am a picture story waiting to be told. I am the Indus Script. It is so exciting to share my mystery with you.

I was made by very clever people. They lived a long, long, long time ago, between the years 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE. These people lived near a big, sparkly river in a place called the Indus Valley. They used tiny tools to carefully carve my little pictures onto small stone squares. These squares were called seals, and they worked just like special stamps. The people would press the stone seal into soft, squishy clay. Squish. And there I was. A perfect picture message left behind. Maybe I was used to mark important things, like a bag full of grain or a pot full of sweet honey.

Here is the most fun part of my story. Today, nobody knows for sure what my pictures mean. I am a fun puzzle from the past. When people look at my little fish and my funny shapes, they wonder about the people who made me. I help them imagine what life was like so long ago. I am here to remind you that the world is full of wonderful secrets and amazing stories, just waiting for curious people like you to find them.