The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. People already knew how to read the Greek script, and so they were able to relate parts of the hieroglyphic and demotic scripts to the Greek script. But with the Indus Valley, we don't have this advantage. We don't know any proper names.
The Indus Valley civilization was one of the largest, most advanced civilizations in the ancient world. But we barely know anything about them, in large part because we haven’t been able to decipher the cryptic symbols they left behind.
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
It’s a great place to view show transcripts and read more about the topics on our show.
Also, email us! unexplainable@vox.com
We read every email.
Support Unexplainable by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices