Archaeologists say they have discovered some of the world’s oldest known primitive writing, dating back 5,000 years, in eastern China.
Some of the markings etched on broken axes resemble a modern Chinese character, they say.
The inscriptions on artefacts found south of Shanghai are about 1,400 years older than the oldest written Chinese language.
Chinese scholars are divided over whether the markings are words or something simpler, but they say the finding will shed light on the origins of Chinese language and culture. The oldest writing in the world is believed to be from Mesopotamia, dating back slightly more than 5,000 years.
Chinese characters are believed to have been developed independently. Inscriptions were found on more than 200 pieces dug out from the Neolithic-era Liangzhu relic site.
The pieces are among thousands of fragments of ceramic, stone, jade, wood, ivory and bone excavated from the site between 2003 and 2006, archaeologist Xu Xinmin said.
The inscriptions have not been reviewed by experts outside the country, but a group of Chinese scholars on archaeology and ancient writing met last weekend in Zhejiang province to discuss the finding. They agreed that the inscriptions are not enough to indicate a developed writing system, but Mr Xu said they include evidence of words on two broken stone-ax pieces.
One of the pieces has six word-like shapes strung together to resemble a short sentence.
“They are different from the symbols we have seen in the past on artefacts,” he said.
“The shapes and the fact that they are in a sentence-like pattern indicate they are expressions of some meaning.”
“If five to six of them are strung together like a sentence, they are no longer symbols but words,” said Cao Jinyan, a scholar on ancient writing at Hangzhou-based Zhejiang University.
He said the markings should be considered hieroglyphics. There are also stand-alone shapes with more strokes: “If you look at the composition, you will see they are more than symbols.”
But archaeologist Liu Zhao from Shanghai’s Fudan University warned that there was not sufficient material for any conclusion. The oldest known Chinese writing has been found on animal bones – known as oracle bones – dating to 3,600 years ago during the Shang dynasty. (AP)