A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America Workers
at the Indus Valley site of Harappa in northern Pakistan were
plied with sweets and entertained by local drummers this past
spring following the discovery of inscribed sherds dating to ca.
2800-2600 B.C. These sherds confirm dates for 1998 discoveries
of Early Indus script on pottery and in the impression of a
square seal on a lump of clay. Punjabi custom calls for sweets
and drummers to celebrate good fortune, and the Harappa
Archaeological Research Project, led by Richard H. Meadow of
Harvard University and J. Mark Kenoyer of University of
Wisconsin, Madison, considered themselves doubly fortunate: they
also recovered a cubical limestone weight from an early period
that conforms to later, standardized weights. The excavators say
these discoveries indicate that the development of a writing
system, the use of inscribed seals impressed into clay for
marking ownership, and the standardization of weights for trade
or taxation occurred many decades,