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Oracle bone script is the oldest attested form of written Chinese, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Inscriptions were made by carving characters into oracle bones, usually either the shoulder bones of oxen or the plastra of turtles. The writings themselves mainly record the results of official divinations carried out on behalf of the ...
Learn about the oldest Chinese script, the oracle bone script, which was used to write Chinese from about 1300 to 1100 BC. Find out its history, structure, characters, inscriptions and examples of texts in this script.
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Oracle-bone script ( jiaguwen ), the earliest known form of systematic Chinese writing, dates from the fourteenth to eleventh century BCE. The sharp beginning and end of each stroke relate to the script’s origins in carving divination texts on tortoise shells and on the flat bones of certain animals. These ancient texts were used primarily in ...
Input Methods. Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; pinyin: jiǎgǔwén; literally "shell bone writing") refers to incised (or, rarely, brush-written) ancient Chinese characters found on animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in ancient China. Referred to as oracle bones, the vast majority are ox and sheep scapulae and tortoise ...
Oracle bone. Oracle bones ( Chinese: 甲骨; pinyin: jiǎgǔ) are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Scapulimancy is the specific term if ox scapulae were used for the divination, plastromancy if turtle plastrons were used.
- 甲骨
- Shells and bones
Feb 26, 2016 · Oracle Bones (also known as Dragon's Bones) were the shoulder blades of oxen or plastrons of turtles (the flat, underside of the turtle's shell) which were used in the Shang Dynasty of China (c. 1600-1046 BCE) for divination. The symbols carved on the bones eventually became words and a recognizable Chinese script developed from this practice.
Jul 26, 2018 · History of Oracle Bone Research . Oracle bones were first identified in the late 19th-century, at archaeological sites such as Yinxu, a late Shang Dynasty capital near Anyang. Although their role in the invention of Chinese writing is still being debated, research into the large caches of oracle bones has demonstrated how the script developed ...
