Predicting the future was serious business during China’s Shang dynasty, when ‘oracle bones’ helped kings make big calls.

Oracle bones predating the Shang Dynasty have also been found, and in 2003, some archaeologists said they'd found "Neolithic oracle bones" from up to 8,600 years ago.

China recently unearthed again inscribed oracle bones, or inscribed tortoise shells or animal bones, of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th century BC) in Daxinzhuang Shang ruins, more than 100 years ...

But it was during the Shang that human sacrifice reached an apex in China. Violence was a part of life in the Shang; in the dynasty’s famous oracle bone script, two of the most common glyphs were ...

Lots of oracle bones have been found in China which were created during the Shang Dynasty.

Oracle bone inscriptions can be divided into several periods according to their forms and contents, based on which we could reconstruct the real royal genealogy of Shang dynasty, and make research on ...

A Shang Dynasty oracle bone housed in the National Museum of China in Beijing. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily] Oracle bones were believed to be first unearthed in Xiaotun village, Anyang, today ...

Shang Dynasty oracle bones with inscriptions of ancient Chinese characters Photo: VCG Editor's Note: Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee ...

Oracle bones predating the Shang Dynasty have also been found, and in 2003, some archaeologists said they'd found "Neolithic oracle bones" from up to 8,600 years ago.