Cracking the Code of Liangzhu

Step into the Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou, and you’ll travel back over 5,000 years. The walls are filled with mysterious carvings left by the Liangzhu people, one of China’s most ancient and advanced civilizations.
These marks aren’t like Egyptian hieroglyphs, which form a full language. Instead, they are fascinating ancient symbols. They appear on sacred jade objects and pottery. Some look like birds, dragons, or intricate patterns. The most famous one is a multi-part symbol that experts call a ‘pictograph’—but no one knows for sure if it was a name, a prayer, or a clan logo.

What makes them so incredible is the civilization that made them. The Liangzhu people were master engineers who built a city with a complex water system, and stunning artists who carved jade with incredible skill. These symbols were part of their sophisticated world.

They are a true mystery, a code from a time before writing was invented. Each one is a piece of a puzzle about humanity’s first attempts to record ideas—and that’s a mystery that sparks imagination today.