Oracle bones
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"
Meaning
Oracle bones are animal bones and tortoise shells used in ancient China to foretell the future. A question was written on the bone. The bone was then heated until it cracked, and experts read the pattern of the cracks as an answer. Oracle bones are the earliest Chinese written sources. They tell us about the hopes, wishes and fears of early Chinese people.
Example
Under the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE), rulers asked questions on oracle bones about matters such as harvests and wars. The signs on these bones are an early form of the Chinese logographic script, in which each character stands for a whole word, not a sound.
Don't confuse with
- Cuneiform tablets: these were clay tablets from Mesopotamia. They were mostly used to keep accounts and records, not to foretell the future.