5,000-year-old 'Chinese characters' discovered

tags: Telegraph (UK), Chinese language, Chinese characters

The inscriptions were found on pieces of pottery and rock dug up from the Zhuangqiao excavation site in the eastern province of Zhejiang and could date back to one of China's oldest civilisations, the Liangzhu.

There is still no consensus among Chinese academics as to whether the markings represent mere symbols or in fact a primitive written language from which today's written characters originate.

The inscriptions could represent "the earliest record of Chinese characters in history, pushing the origins of the written language back 1,000 years," according to China's official news agency Xinhua....

5,000-year-old 'Chinese characters' discovered

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