Boning up on China's past

Archaeologists in China have reportedly found sheep bones inscribed with what they say are the oldest examples of written Chinese characters.

China's official Xinhua news agency is reporting that eight characters carved on two pieces of charred bone were found among pottery, stone and shellware in a pit at a sacrificial site in eastern Shandong province.

The bones are estimated to be 3,500 years old. This would make them 300 years older than the previous earliest examples of so-called oracle bones.

In ancient China animal bones were burned until they cracked and then soothsayers tried to predict the future by interpreting the meaning of these cracks.

The Chinese writing system is possibly the oldest and among the most complicated in human civilisation.

Xinhua says the new discovery appears to confirm the view that the sophistication of the previous oldest examples - about 10,000 characters found on bones in Henan province - suggested that they resulted from a period of development.

But the agency says only 10% of the Henan characters have been deciphered.

So far, only two of the characters from the latest find have been worked out. Xinhua says they are the forerunners of the modern characters meaning soothsaying and the number six.