section_path: History and origins/China
section_name: China
paragraph_text: China
  
  The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on oracle bones, usually tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae which were used for divination—date from around 1200 BC, during the Late Shang period. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived.
  
  In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of isolated tortoise-shell carvings dating back to the 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle bone script is disputed.