History glossary
Oracle bone
a turtle shell or animal bone used by Shang kings for divination and inscribed with early Chinese writing.
- Category
- Writing and ritual object
- Region
- Shang China
- Date range
- especially c. 1300-1046 BCE
What it means
Oracle bones were turtle shells or animal shoulder bones used in Shang divination. Questions were carved or written on them, heat was applied until cracks formed, and specialists interpreted the cracks as answers from ancestors or spirits. Their inscriptions are the earliest confirmed Chinese writing.
