More than 5000 years ago they were one of the most advanced societies during the Bronze Age.
But the old Indus-people from the contemporary Pakistan and North India-Hebben left an old writing system that is still confusing experts today.
About 4,000 old plates, made from materials such as stone and copper, are registered with the mysterious script.
It consists of strange literary symbols and illustrations and is different from any other language in the world.
Now the Indian government is determined to finally decipher the old writing system.
It has announced that it offers no less than $ 1 million (£ 800,000) to anyone who can crack the mysterious Indus Valley script.
“I announce a cash prize of $ 1 million to private individuals or organizations that decipher the script to the satisfaction of archaeological experts,” said Minister MK Stalin.
So, do you know what the letters and symbols mean?
The Indus inscriptions – usually made on stone – are very short, consisting of no more than five plates on average
Displayed, Indus characters from an impression of a cylinder seal discovered in Susa in today's Iran, in a stratum date from 2400-2100 BC. – which suggests that the old Indus is traded with Mesopotamia
The Indus – the largest but the least known for all the first major urban cultures – flourished from 2600 to 1900 BC and then disappeared abruptly from historical archives.
Very little is known about the people who strangely enough left no archaeological proof of warfare and communicated in one of the world's most unusual scripts.
Just like their contemporaries, the Indus – who perhaps put together 10 percent of the world's population – lived in addition to rivers, because of their livelihood on the fertility of annually watered countries.
In a statement, MK Stalin, head minister of the Indian, announced the prize to anyone who can successfully decipher the Indus Valley script.
“We were unable to understand the writing system of the once flowering Indus valley,” he said, quoted by Hindustan Times.
'The mystery has not been answered in the last 100 years despite various efforts of archaeologists and experts.
MailOnline has contacted the Tamil Nadu government and the Indus International Research Foundation on how to participate in the challenge.
It is unclear whether there is an online process for hopeful people who think they can translate the script, or that the minister expects them to contact us.
Indus inscriptions are all very short, making the challenge to decipher them harder. The average length of the inscriptions is around five signs, while the longest only 34 characters long. Displayed, a copper plate of the Indus valley registered with 34 characters, the longest known single Indus script inscription.
The Zebu Bull Seal with Indus Script is an artifact of the Indus Valley civilization that is located in the collection of the National Museum in New Delhi
This map shows the range of the Indus people in Orange. The Indus rich stretched more than a million square miles over the plains of the Indus River of the Arab Sea to the Ganges, on what is now Pakistan, Northwest -India and East -Afghanistan. Archaeological discoveries suggest that trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus were active during the 3rd millennium BC, which led to the development of relationships between Indus-Mesopotamia
The Indus inscriptions – made on plates of stone, bronze, copper and more – have a mix of symbols and human or animal motifs, such as bulls and unicorns.
Unfortunately, each plate has quite a few symbols, which means that the challenge is to try to decipher what they mean hard, according to researchers.
The average length of the inscriptions is around five signs, while the longest, registered on the buyer, is only 34 characters long.
Some experts wonder whether the symbols represent a language at all, or are only pictograms that wear religious or political symbols.
Although we do not know what their inscriptions meant, we know some details about Indus civilization, also known as Harappan, who flourished half a millennium in the area of contemporary Pakistan and North India from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC . .
It stretched more than a million square miles over the plains of the Indus River of the Arab Sea to the Ganges, about what is now Pakistan, Northwest -India and East -Afghanistan.
But it mysteriously refused and disappeared and remained invisible for almost 4000 years until the ruins in the 1920s were accidentally discovered by British and Indian archaeologists.
So far, more than 1,000 Indus settlements that Pakistan and northwestern India have been discovered, including the two Hoofdhubs-Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa near the Indus River.
Under their settlements, researchers have discovered the world's first well -known toilets, along with complex stone weights, drilled gemstone chains and beautifully cut seal stone, not to mention around 4,000 of the scripts.
Depicted, ruins of the archaeological site of Harappa, Indus Valley Civilization, 3rd Millennium BC, Punjab, Pakistan
A sculpture, possibly a priest, from the old Indus city of Mohenjo-Daro, now in the Karachi Museum in Pakistan
“It was the most extensive urban culture of his period,” said Indus expert Andrew Robinson published in Nature in a 2015 study.
'[It had] A population of perhaps 1 million and a powerful maritime export trade on the Golf and Cities such as UR in Mesopotamia, where objects are registered with Indus drawing have been discovered. '
“Amazingly enough, culture has not left any archaeological evidence of armies or warfare.”
Archaeological discoveries suggest that trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus were active during the 3rd millennium BC, which led to the development of relationships between Indus-Mesopotamia.
Together with the difficulty to decipher the text, nobody knows for sure why such a great civilization has disappeared around 1300 BC.
A theory, which emerged in 2012, is that climate change led to the collapse – namely rising temperatures that caused fewer monsoons.
The enormous success of civilization was fundamentally based on monsoons for water and agriculture, so changes in the climate would have been disastrous.
Another theory, which is supported by archaeological evidence, is that the most important trigger for the decline was earthquakes.
A study from 2006 said, “Earthquakes influenced the downfall of various Harappan locations, either by direct shaking, changing the water supply, or by changing the relative sea level.”
What do we know about the civilization of the Indus Valley?
The Indus civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization, was an advanced society of the Bronze Age.
It mainly developed in the northwestern regions of South Asia from 5,300 to 3,300 years ago.
The Indus cities were at their richest between and 2600 and 1900 BC.
Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of the three early civilizations of the old world.
The Indus occupies the Indus River Valley area in the modern Pakistan and India
The empire stretched from the Arab Sea to the Ganges, about what is now Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
At its peak, civilization may have had a population of more than 5 million, which makes 10 percent of the world's population.
Under their settlements, researchers have discovered the world's first well -known toilets, along with complex stone weights, drilled gems and beautifully cut seal stone.
Etsleed in these artifacts is an unusual and complex script that researchers race to decipher.
Why civilization disappeared about 3000 years ago, remains a msytery, but experts have suggested that war, famine or even climate change could have been responsible.
