No, they didn't exhume Confucius. Sober up. Archaeo News reports on a find that could prove to be very important to the history of human literacy:
Archaeologists have discovered pottery bearing inscriptions dating back 4,500 years, which could prove to be China's earliest example of written language. These pottery fragments, found in the ruins of an ancient city in Huaiyang County of Henan Province, are believed to be parts of a spinning wheel. A photo showed a piece of black pottery bearing white strokes. The fragment formed half of a round spinning wheel, with a diameter of 4.7 centimeters and a thickness of 1.1 centimeters.
The inscriptions are similar in shape to the Ba Gua writings, an octagonal diagram that is a fundamental philosophical concept of ancient China, according to Chinese archaeologist Li Xueqin of Tsinghua University. "The discovery of the inscriptions on the spinning wheel proves that Pingliangtai, where the ruins are located, could be one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization," Li said.
And all this time I thought the birthplace of Chinese civilization was by Fu King.
Posted by: prairie biker | November 01, 2006 at 08:55 PM