Published 2022-12-06
Keywords
- writing,
- Chinese writing,
- China,
- Chinese archaeology,
- Chinese history
- Shang Dynasty,
- oracle bone inscriptions,
- bronze inscriptions ...More
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2022 Anna Csikó
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Writing is certainly one of the greatest ‘inventions’ of mankind. Today modern societies would be unimaginable without writing (and reading). The extent of the power of those who possessed the ability to write and read in ancient times was perhaps even harder for us to imagine. According to our knowledge, during the history of the world writing evolved independently in only four places: cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia (3400-3300 BCE), hieroglyphic writing in Ancient Egypt (around 3200 BCE), oracle bone script in Ancient China (around 1200 BCE) and the writing of the Olmec culture (which is similar to hieroglyphic writing of Egypt) in Ancient Mesoamerica (around 900-500 BCE). Unlike the cuneiform in Mesopotamia and the hieroglyphic writing in Egypt, the appearance of the oracle bone script during the Shang Dynasty in Ancient China is obviously not the starting point of Chinese writing, since the oracle bone texts are clear proofs of a fully developed writing system. The question is whether there is any evidence that can support the theory that writing in Ancient China existed before the Shang Dynasty.
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