Hanzi Roots

The roots meaning of the characters or Hanzi of Mandarin Chinese often relate to the overall meaning of the word. Sometimes a complex word containing many characters will have a root character called a 'radical' that will help us have a greater understanding of the history, context and definition of that word. Some of my favorites are the 'sun' radical, fire, horse, grass, rain and lightning, mouth, hand, and silk radical. It is easy to see that these Hanzi were once hand painted pictures representing the specific subjects they are named after.
Chinese is the oldest continually used language in the world. Crude carvings and pictographs have been found dating back 8000 years and more. These can't necessarily be called a language but they have linked to more recent uses of Chinese. The earliest true records date between 3000 and 5000BC.
I would say those are some pretty deep roots.