MATSUE, JAPAN—According to a report in The Asahi Shimbun, dark lines on one side of a three- and one-half inch-long piece of stone may be Chinese kanji characters written some 2,000 years ago, although scientists caution that infrared imaging has not been able to confirm that the lines were drawn with ink. The artifact was unearthed at Tawayama, an archaeological site of the Yayoi Pottery Culture located on the western end of the island of Honshu, and has been dated to the beginning of the first century A.D. Takeo Kuzumi of the Archaeological Property Section of the Fukuoka city government said rubbing marks on the other side of the stone suggest it was used to grind ink. The oldest-known confirmed Japanese writing in ink, found on pottery vessels, dates to the second and third centuries A.D. To read about a hoard of bronze coins unearthed at a fifteenth-century samurai's house, go to "Samurai Nest Egg."