Houston Community News >> Chinese Writing 8,000 Years Old
5/18/2007 BEIJING- Chinese
archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern
Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought.
State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating
back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country.
They say many of these symbols bear a strong resemblance to later forms of
ancient Chinese characters.
Scholars had thought Chinese symbols came into use about 4,500 years ago.
The Damaidi carvings, first discovered in the 1980s, cover 15 sq km and feature
more than 8,000 individual figures including the sun, moon, stars, gods and
scenes of hunting or grazing.
“We have found some symbols shaped like both pictures and characters,” Li
Xiangshi, a cliff carving expert at the North University of Nationalities in
Ningxia Hui autonomous region, told Xinhua news agency.
“The pictographs are similar to the ancient hieroglyphs of Chinese characters
and many can be identified as ancient characters."
(Contributed by The International News)