Summary: A comparison of 39 Egyptian hieroglyphic determinatives with the oldest known version in Shang bronze script reveals a remarkable similarity of graphic shape and meaning. Out of the 39 hieroglyphs selected only 20 Shang characters with same or similar meanings were traceable but of these 18 made an exact match. As this represents nearly half of the total it argues for a higher than chance probability that these matches could not have arisen coincidentally. This article sets out the methods used and briefly discusses each matching pair and attempts, briefly, to set them into a historical and cultural context.