Oracle bones represented an extraordinary discovery for sinologists and historians and they are significant in two ways. Oracle bones became items of great value for foreign collectors and dealers and they soon began to be collected by British private and public institutions. After Wang committed suicide following his brief participation as a local commander in the Boxer Rebellion, his friend Liu E, who had acquired the bones from Wang, published in 1903 the first book of oracle bones rubbings and inscriptions and from that moment the news of their discovery spread rapidly. In 1899, Wang Yirong, antiquarian, collector of bronzes and chancellor of the Chinese Imperial Academy, recognized the importance of the inscribed bones and purchased several pieces from an antiquities dealer who had previously acquired the bones from some farmers. The first sets were collected and decrypted only during the early years of the 20th century.ĭuring the 19 th century, oracle bones were known by locals as “dragon bones” (long gu 龍骨) and, following the principles of the traditional Chinese medicine, they were grounded to obtain a powder which was believed to be able to cure many types of diseases. Oracle bones are a recent discovery in Chinese archaeology. The typical ├ shaped cracks are evident on the surface.

Most of the cracks produced by the heat on the reverse side of the bones appeared on the front side with a distinctive shape (├ ) from which comes the Chinese character for the verb “to divine” (卜).īL Or.7694.1535 (recto). The response was inscribed on the bone too. Because of the heat, the bones would crack and the answers would be given by the diviners who interpreted the different shapes and the patterns of the fractures. Questions about crops, the weather or the royal family were engraved with a sharp object and the bone was then heated with metal sticks. Oracle bones are turtle plastrons or animal bones (mostly ox scapulae) used for divination practices during the Bronze age in China. They date from between 16 BCE (Shang Dynasty) and this makes them the oldest items in the entire British Library.īL Or.7694.1535 (verso). The Chinese collection in the Department of Asian and African Studies of the British Library includes a unique series of more than 400 oracle bones (jia gu甲骨).

Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler