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ZENODO
Other literature type . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
ZENODO
Other literature type . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Other literature type . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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The Credit Cards of the Bronze Age: Indus Seals and the Origins of Institutional Credit

Authors: Kriger, Boris;

The Credit Cards of the Bronze Age: Indus Seals and the Origins of Institutional Credit

Abstract

 This paper proposes that Indus Valley Civilization stamp seals (c. 2600–1900 BCE) functioned as institutional credit instruments — the structural equivalent of modern credit cards — within a guild-backed transaction system. The Indus civilization sustained long-distance trade across five million square kilometers without coinage. Building on a prior statistical analysis of 179 Mohenjo-Daro unicorn seal inscriptions (Kriger & Hunt 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.19103880), five convergent lines of evidence are presented: (1) near-total sequence uniqueness (98.3%, p < 0.001), analogous to unique account numbers; (2) positional entropy profiles consistent with formatted alphanumeric codes; (3) intaglio manufacture enabling impression transfer, functionally identical to embossed credit card imprinting; (4) centralized, tamper-resistant production paralleling institutional card issuance; and (5) archaeological find contexts consistent with a non-transferable credential guaranteeing creditworthiness. The paper reconstructs a five-stage transaction cycle (issuance, identification, recording, clearing, retirement), reinterprets duplicate seals as replacement issuances, and develops the international function of seals found at Mesopotamian sites as credit credentials. A new section on phonetic vocalization reconciles the credit-instrument hypothesis with Parpola's Proto-Dravidian readings: the codes were spoken aloud for communication but the vocalization was not what the codes encoded. The interpretation is situated within the broader scholarship on pre-monetary credit (Graeber 2011; Hudson 2018) and is compatible with Mukhopadhyay's (2023) administrative interpretation and the Decision Framework proposed in Kriger (2026). All claims are qualified to the Mohenjo-Daro unicorn subcorpus. Keywords: Indus script, credit instruments, pre-monetary economies, institutional credit, Indus seals, Bronze Age trade, cashless transactions, registration codes, Mohenjo-Daro, Harappan civilization Related identifiers: Kriger, B., & Hunt, T. A. (2026). Positional constraints, sequence uniqueness, and stroke numerals in Indus seal inscriptions from Mohenjo-Daro. doi:10.5281/zenodo.19103880 (is supplemented by this upload) License: CC BY 4.0

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
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