Kur Symbol - Indus Scripts Deciphered

Kur symbol indicates ‘Netherworld’

Kur – symbol indicates the land of the dead

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Figure 1: Sumerian ‘Kur symbol’.

This tri-foliate pattern indicates the land of ‘Kur’ as per Wikipedia(commons). (1) It means “land, foreign land, mountain, and the underworld.” It is often used to refer to a distant land or the netherworld. In the story of ‘Inana’s Descent’, ‘Kur’ is the word frequently used to describe the land of the dead.

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Figure 2: Kur symbol (second symbol from the left)

Picture courtesy – (2)

The sign also represents a trio of mountains. (3) In such a situation, the triple mountain symbol used in Indus seals could be indicating the nether world $C:\Users\user\Desktop\ivc-logos-indus - 3\mountain.jpg$ .

See the above-given seal inscription. Kur symbol, as well as triple cone symbols, are appearing. That means both symbols have a different meaning. Verification shows that this triple cone symbol is different from ‘Kur symbol’ and indicates the three pindas offered to three generations of Pithrus. There is a second possibility that this triple cone symbol could have indicated the triple mountain also. It looks like that this triple cone symbol originally indicated the triple mountain, which was the land of Pithrus. The same had been forgotten and three cones are treated as pindas and as food for Pithrus. This explanation needs further verification.

This word ‘Kur’ is further supported by the research work of Tom Kencis on Latvian mythology (4). Kencis states that there are various reconstructions of Latvian mythical space, but most researchers agree on the meaning of certain features related to the sky. The sky itself is identified as ‘Debeskalns’ (which means “Sky Mountain”). The sky is also referred to as Mountain of Pebbles, Silver Mountain or Ice Mountain, with the adjectives probably referring to stars or snow. (4) (5).

Figure 3: Anthropomorphic Bull figure with Pebble Mountain.

Picture courtesy – (6 p. 250)

The above-given observation of Kencis is supported by the above-given figure from Proto-Elamite seal. (6). It is not clear, what the pebble-like figures indicate, but correlating with the observation of Kencis, it is assumed that this Pebble Mountain could be indicating ‘Sky Mountain’. Thereby deriving the idea of ‘netherworld’ (Kur).

Note the similarity of the above-given figure with the modern-day depiction of ‘God Ganesha’. God Ganesha always carries ‘Modakam’ a pebble-shaped sweet, which looks very similar to the pebble mountain shown in the above-given figure.

1. commons.wikimedia(Sumerian_signs). Sumerian_signs. commons.wikimedia.org. [Online] 2016. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sumerian_signs.

2. Sullivan, Sue. Indus Script Dictionary. s.l. : Suzanne Redalia, 2011.

3. allmesopotamia.tumblr.com. Sumerian-Kur-it-means. allmesopotamia.tumblr.com. [Online] 2016. http://allmesopotamia.tumblr.com/post/27778688368/rsbenedict-sunday-sumerian-kur-it-means.

4. “The Latvian Mythological space in scholarly Time” (PDF). Kencis, Tom. 2011, Ķencis, Toms (2011). “The Latvian Mythological Archaeologia Baltica (Klaipėda: Klaipėda University Press), p. 144.

5. Wikipedia(Latvian_mythology). Latvian_mythology. wikipedia.org. [Online] 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_mythology.

6. Parpola, Asko. Deciphering the Indus script. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.