Neolithic symbols in China
Beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, artifacts bearing markings dating to the Neolithic period have been unearthed at several archeological sites in China, mostly in the Yellow River valley.
However, the Neolithic symbols have only been found in small numbers, and do not appear to go beyond pictorial techniques, as is required to obtain a true writing system representing spoken language.
Sinologist William G. Boltz points out that such comparisons are "notoriously risky and inconclusive" when based on such primitive scratch marks rather than on similarity in function.
[4] Boltz adds: "There does not seem to be any meaningful order of repetition or concatenation that would lead us to suspect anything more than that these are random and largely unorganized, unsystematic markings.
[6] Qiu Xigui explains: Only when symbols ... are consciously used to record words used to form sentences is there a true sign that the development of script has begun.Evidence is still scant, even when considering evidence dating to the early Shang period: While these materials are very valuable, they are unfortunately few in number and most of them are rather fragmentary so that they are far from being able to provide an ample basis for solving the problem of the formation of Chinese writing.
[14] In Damaidi, at Beishan Mountain in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BCE have been discovered over an area of 15 square kilometers, including a reported 8,453 different kinds of pictures like celestial bodies, gods and hunting or grazing scenes.
Thus, leading scholar Qiu Xigui (2000) argues that: What these symbols represent definitely cannot be a fully formed system of writing; this much is quite clear.
[35] Since excavations began in the 1950s, artifacts bearing inscriptions dating to c. 2800–2500 BCE have been unearthed belonging to the Dawenkou culture in Shandong.
In addition to the similarity in style between these and pictographic Shang and early Zhou clan symbols,[39] what is important about the latter two types is that they have multiple components, reminiscent of the compounding of elements in the Chinese script, thus eliciting claims of a relationship.
[41][42] As with each of the other Neolithic sites, the comparison is based on only a handful of isolated pictures, and there is again no evidence of use in strings of symbols such as we would expect with true writing – none of these appear jointly.
[49]The Chengziya site in Longshan, Shandong has produced fragments of inscribed bones presumably used to divine the future, dating to 2500–1900 BCE, and symbols on pottery vessels from Dinggong are thought by some scholars to be an early form of writing.
A pottery inscription of the Longshan culture discovered in Dinggong Village, Zouping County, Shandong contains eleven symbols that do not look like the direct ancestor of Chinese characters.
The authenticity of these inscriptions is hotly disputed due to their appearance on a broken ceramic ware, an unusual feature among prehistorical text, as well as its unexpected similar appearance with the Yi script, a modern writing system associated with an ethnic group in the southwestern China, thousands of miles and thousands of years apart from the Longshan culture in northern China.
There are also some items, including some inscribed jades, which have symbols similar to or identical to several of the Dawenkou pictures, such as the circle and peaked crescent motif , and another described as a bird perched on a mountain-like shape; it appears that some of these may belong to the Liangzhu culture.
[31] In western Guangxi, late neolithic and bronze age artifacts have been uncovered bearing symbols (Zhuang: Sawveh 'etched script').
