Jiahu Symbols: Early Chinese Markings on Tortoise Shells

At Jiahu Phase II, inhabitants incised eleven distinct signs on tortoise shell fragments recovered from burial pits, dated to approximately 6600 BCE. Li et al.'s 2003 Antiquity analysis documented sixteen marked carapaces and noted visual similarities between several Jiahu signs and characters appearing in Shang oracle bone script some 5,000 years later, including signs resembling 目 (eye) and 戈 (halberd). Most scholars classify the markings as proto-writing or symbolic sign use rather than a continuous writing system; some researchers question whether any direct genealogical connection to later Chinese script can be established.