纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 013印度封印（8）

We need to know more about these great Indus cities, and our knowledge is still growing steadily, but of course the big breakthrough would come if we could read the signs on the seals.

So, if you've got some time on your hands, this might be the moment to abandon Sudoku, and come and look at the Indus seals and become the person that cracked the Indus Valley script. You might just be able to bring a lost civilisation back to life. In the meantime, the total disappearance of these great urban societies is a chilling reminder of just how fragile our own city life - indeed our whole civilisation - is.

In the next programme, we have no writing at all - and a very different kind of society, far from the urban sophistication of India and the Middle East. For the first time in the series, we'll be in Britain, where the ultimate luxury is a piece of jade.