20 pieces of oracle-bone scripts, or Jia Gu Wen in Chinese, will be auctioned in Shanghai this July.

The scripts were excavated over one hundred years ago, and they date back about 3,000 years.

They make up the first batch of oracle-bone scripts excavated in the Yin Ruins, in central China's Anyang City.

Before going up for auction on July 3rd, the scripts will be exhibited in Beijing and Anyang this May.

The oracle-bone script, which is generally considered as the first type of true Chinese writing, was developed during the Shang dynasty.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2004)