Thursday, July 18, 2013

Archeologists in China Unearth the World's Oldest Writing?


Perhaps.

From a piece in the Daily Star...

Archaeologists say they have discovered a new form of primitive writing in markings on stoneware excavated from a relic site in eastern China dating about 5,000 years back. Some scholars, however, have responded more cautiously to the findings. Unearthed at the Zhuangqiaofen archaeological site in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the inscriptions are about 1,400 years older than the oldest known written Chinese language and around the same age as the oldest writing in the world.

Chinese scholars are divided on whether the etchings amount to actual writing or a precursor to words that should be described as symbols, but they say the finding will help shed light on the origins of Chinese language and culture. The oldest current known Chinese writing has been found on animal bones – known as oracle bones – dating to 3,600 years ago during the Shang dynasty.


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