Jiahu symbols

Example of the Jiahu symbols

Jiahu symbols (贾湖契刻符号) refer to the 16 distinct markings on prehistoric artifacts found in Jiahu, a neolithic Peiligang culture site found in Henan, China. Dated to 6600 BC, some archaeologists believe the markings to be similar (although without necessarily having the same meaning) to some characters used in a much later writing system related to the oracle bone script (e.g. similar markings of 目 “eye”, 日 “sun; day”), but there is currently no consensus. Some doubt that they represent systematic writing at all, and believe they were simply used as pictures, or at best are a form of proto-writing that conveyed a message without encoding language. The earliest evidence for a corpus of writing in the oracle bone script dates much later to the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – 1046 BC).

See also

• Neolithic signs in China
• Bronzeware script

External links

• ‘Earliest writing’ found in China at BBC News