China

Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings stated in 2007 that they had evidence to show that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than had previously been thought.

It was a controversial claim, with cynics being of the opinion that the Chinese state merely wanted to 'beat' the invention of writing in Sumer in the fourth millennium BC (see 'related links' for more on the first writing system).

State media claimed that researchers had identified more than two thousand pictorial symbols dating back eight thousand years (to about 6000 BC), on the Damaidi cliff faces in the north-west of the country. Many of these symbols bore a strong resemblance to later forms of ancient Chinese characters.

Even in 2007, scholars were generally of the opinion that Chinese symbols came into use about 4,500 years ago, or 2500 BC. This would have been during the era which is known as the 'Chinese Legendary Period', although the more general use of characters in writing would take longer to evolve.

The Damaidi carvings were first discovered in the 1980s. They cover fifteen square metres and feature more than eight thousand individual figures including the sun, moon, stars, gods, and scenes of hunting or grazing.

Some symbols which were shaped like both pictures and characters were also found, according to Li Xiangshi, a cliff carving expert at the North University of Nationalities in Ningxia Hui autonomous region. The pictographs were said to be similar to the ancient hieroglyphs of Chinese characters and many could be identified as ancient characters.

Until the discovery, the earliest known characters included old inscriptions dated to about 2500 BC on pottery from Henan Province in central China.

More than a decade later the 'discovery' had not apparently gained traction. The earliest indisputable Chinese writing was still being claimed as the 'Oracle Bone' script of the late second millennium BC.

A developmental phase for such script must be assumed, but still could not be confirmed. The date of 2500 BC, or an already-developed 'Early Dynastic' Sumer, must still be taken as the start of its development.

The Shang controlled central China, including a long stretch of the Yellow River and a large number of subject tribes or kingdoms, and they ushered China into the historical record - however, the Shang did not form China's only civilisation; the Sanxingdui culture had formed in western China entirely independently of the Yellow River cultures (click or tap on map to view full sized)

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