Art of East Asia: Neolithic & Bronze Age China
A tortoise plastron with oracle inscriptions. Long known as "dragon
bones," the oracle bones of the Shang dynasty were in the medical market
place where they were often prescribed as a power for various ills. In
the early part of this century, scholars became curious about the writing
and traced the Oracle bones to their source at the village of An yang which
in turn led to the archaeological discovery of the Shang .
Ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons were used to foretell the future. they
were prepared by cutting a grove on one side (not visible in this photograph)
and applying a heated probe to the side of the grove. When the bone or
shell cracked, the priest would predict the future on the basis of the nature
of the crack. However, no study has revealed any consistency as to the
nature of the answers relative to the shape of the cracks. Often the questions
were written in red ink and then carved into the surface. It is from these
inscriptions that much of Shang history has be reconstructed.
