Oracle Bone Divination Script of Ancient China

Around 1400-1200 BCE during the Late Shang Dynasty, Chinese diviners developed oracle bone inscriptions at Anyang. They carved questions about warfare, harvests, weather, and royal affairs into turtle plastrons and ox shoulder blades, applied heat until the bones cracked, then interpreted the patterns as ancestral responses and recorded both questions and interpretations. This pictographic script could express complex ideas. Scholars estimate 150,000 oracle bones have been discovered, mostly from Yinxu, the final Shang capital. The script became the ancestor of later Chinese writing systems.