Segmentation of indus texts: A dynamic programming approach

✍ Scribed by Siromoney, Gift ;Huq, Abdul

• Book ID: 104624689
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 840 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4817
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00056346

✦ Synopsis

The Indus valley civilization, also known as the Harappan civilization flourished from 2600 B.C. to 1750 B.C. in the Indian subcontinent. The writings of that civilization are in a pictorial type of script which has not been deciphered so far.

There are over 2900 short inscriptions of an average length of 5 signs but some texts are as long as 10 signs or ever longer. The question is whether the unusually long texts are really long texts or made up of more than one text put one next to the other. A new approach is presented here using a dynamic programming model with the aid of the computer. Many unusually long inscriptions are tested and found to be combinations of more than one short text.