The Indus Water Distribution Administrative Seal (Type-w)

A groundbreaking analysis reveals that an Indus Valley seal from Dholavira encodes a complete municipal water-distribution system, offering the first functional decoding of its kind. The seal's six interconnected hydraulic motifs—intake grid, filtration gate, sediment control channels, pressure-balance shaft, diversion valve, and anti-backflow regulator—mirror excavated structures from major Harappan sites like Dholavira, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and Lothal. Below these symbols, a storage vessel signifies controlled household allocation, while the buffalo emblem denotes administrative oversight. This interpretation, rooted in functional logic and archaeological parallels, demonstrates that Indus engineers used seals to represent real operational processes, providing a novel lens for understanding the Indus script through engineering systems rather than linguistic reconstruction.

K avadiya, D. (2025). THE INDUS WATER DISTRIBUTION ADMINISTRATIVE SEAL (TYPE-W). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.17640924