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On statistical measures and ancient writing systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Rajesh P. N. Rao ,
Rob Lee ,
Nisha Yadav ,
Mayank Vahia ,
Philip Jonathan  and
Pauline Ziman
Rajesh P. N. Rao*
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
Rob Lee*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Nisha Yadav*
Affiliation:
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Mayank Vahia*
Affiliation:
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Philip Jonathan*
Affiliation:
University of Lancaster
Pauline Ziman*
Affiliation:
PHS Consulting Ltd.
*
Rao, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195 [rao@cs.washington.edu]
Lee, School of Biosciences, Geoffrey Pope Building, University of Exeter Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QD, United Kingdom [R.Lee@exeter.ac.uk]
Yadav and Vahia, Department of Astronomy &Astrophysics, TIFR, Mumbai 400005, India
Yadav and Vahia, Department of Astronomy &Astrophysics, TIFR, Mumbai 400005, India
Jonathan, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YF, United Kingdom
Ziman, PHS Consulting Ltd., Pryors Hayes Farm, Willington Road Oscroft, Tarvin, Chester CH3 8NL, United Kingdom
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Abstract

An article published in Language (Sproat 2014a) questions our findings on the Indus script and Pictish symbols published in the journals Science (Rao et al. 2009a), PNAS (Rao et al. 2009b), IEEE Computer (Rao 2010), and the Proceedings of the Royal Society (Lee et al. 2010a,b). Sproat's article does not accurately present our methods and findings, and its conclusions are based on what appears to be a misunderstanding of our proposed approach. For example, the article's results on entropic measures seem to favor, rather than contradict, the inductive hypothesis that the Indus script may represent writing. The article selects results to draw a particular set of conclusions and convey a specific viewpoint. In light of these issues, we stand by our original findings.

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Language , Volume 91 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. e198 - e205
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Linguistic Society of America

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