Can YOU decipher these symbols? Scientists are offering a $1 MILLION prize to anyone who can read this mysterious Indus Valley script
Can YOU decipher these symbols? Scientists are offering a $1 MILLION prize to anyone who can read this mysterious Indus Valley script
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They were one of the most advanced societies during the Bronze Age more than 5,000 years ago. But the ancient Indus people – native to modern-day Pakistan and Northern India – left behind an ancient writing system that is still confusing experts today.
![[Pictured, Indus characters from an impression of a cylinder seal discovered in Susa in modern-day Iran, in a stratum dated to 2400–2100 BC - suggesting the ancient Indus traded with Mesopotamia]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/28/12/94593285-14333345-image-a-7_1738066273445.jpg)
About 4,000 ancient plates, made of materials like stone and copper, are inscribed with the mysterious script. It consists of odd letter-like symbols and illustrations, and is unlike any other language in the world. Now, the Indian government is determined to finally decipher the ancient writing system.
![[Indus inscriptions are all very short, making the challenge of trying to decipher them harder. The average length of the inscriptions is around five signs, while the longest only 34 characters long. Pictured, an Indus Valley copper plate inscribed with 34 characters, the longest known single Indus script inscription.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/28/12/94593283-14333345-An_Indus_Valley_copper_plate_inscribed_with_34_characters_the_lo-a-9_1738066491709.jpg)
It has announced that it is offering a whopping $1 million (£800,000) award to anyone who can crack the mysterious Indus Valley script. 'I announce a cash prize of $1 million to individuals or organisations that decipher the script to the satisfaction of archaeological experts,' said minister MK Stalin.
![[The Zebu Bull Seal with Indus Script is an artifact from the Indus Valley Civilization that is in the collection of the National Museum in New Delhi]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/28/12/94593433-14333345-image-a-20_1738067998472.jpg)
So, do you know what the letters and symbols mean?. The Indus inscriptions - typically made on stone - are very short, comprising no more than five signs on the average. Pictured, Indus characters from an impression of a cylinder seal discovered in Susa in modern-day Iran, in a stratum dated to 2400–2100 BC - suggesting the ancient Indus traded with Mesopotamia.
![[This map shows the range of the Indus people in orange. The Indus Empire stretched more than a million square miles across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, over what is now Pakistan, northwest India and eastern Afghanistan. Archaeological discoveries suggest that trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus were active during the 3rd millennium BC, leading to the development of Indus-Mesopotamia relations]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/28/12/94593777-14333345-image-a-19_1738067485873.jpg)
The Indus – the largest yet least known of all the first great urban cultures – thrived from 2600 to 1900 BC, and then abruptly vanished from historical records. Very little is known about the people, who strangely left no archaeological evidence of warfare and communicated in one of the world's most unusual scripts.
![[Pictured, ruins of the archaeological site of Harappa, Indus Valley civilization, 3rd millennium BC, Punjab, Pakistan]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/28/12/94593431-14333345-Pictured_ruins_of_the_archaeological_site_of_Harappa_Indus_Valle-a-28_1738069138551.jpg)
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