Between Kahu-Jo-Darro's ~6600 BC symbols and Shang Oracle bone script (~1250 BC under King Wu Ding) lies a puzzling 5,000-year gap where inscribed shells vanish. Possible intermediates include 2007 Damaidi rock carvings (~8000 BC), ~4500-year-old Pingliangtai pottery, and Taosi cinnabar marks. Skeptics call them scattered independent innovations.
The 5,000-year gap between Kahu-Jo-Darro symbols and Shang Oracle bone script
PakistanEpigraphy
Key facts
- Shang Oracle bone script is the first universally accepted fully developed Chinese writing system, appearing around 1250 BC in the reign of Shang King Wu Ding
- Inscribed tortoise shell essentially vanishes from the archaeological record for millennia after Kahu-Jo-Darro, creating a 5,000-year gap
- In 2007, Chinese archaeologists announced rock-carved symbols at Damaidi in Ningxia, arguing they may be 8,000 years old and contain early ancestral forms of Chinese characters
- In 2006, pottery fragments were reported from Pingliangtai dated to around 4,500 years ago (2500 BC), over a millennium before the Shang Oracle bones
- Other intermediate evidence includes a red painted symbol on a Longshan culture pot, a carved jade tortoise from around 3300 BC with tablet-like markings, incised symbols at Banpo and Jiangzhai, and cinnabar painted marks from Taosi around 2000 BC
- Skeptics argue these scattered, non-continuous, simple symbols represent independent innovations for tallying or ownership marking rather than a single unbroken lineage to Shang script
Site mentioned
Sources
shufa.pku.edu.cn
Linked in video description
Wu Dingen.wikipedia.org
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