契丹大字
While there has long been controversy as to whether a particular monument belong to the large or small script, there are several monuments (steles or fragments of stelae) that the specialists at least tentatively identify as written in the Khitan large script. However, one of the first inscriptions so identified (the "Gu taishi mingshi ji" epitaph, found in 1935) has been since lost, and the preserved rubbings of it are not very legible; moreover, some believe that this inscription was a forgery in the first place. In any event, the total of about 830 different large-script characters are thought to have been identified, even without the problematic "Gu taishi mingshi ji"; including it, the character count rises to about 1000. The Memorial for Yelü Yanning (dated 986 CE) is one of the earliest inscriptions in Khitan large script.