Oracle bones were inscribed objects used for divination in ancient China. Divination is the practice of trying to learn the unknown by magical or supernatural means. The use of oracle bones originated before about 1600 B.C., as the Shang Dynasty developed in China. Oracle bone inscriptions led to the development of the Chinese writing systems. 
Shang people used oracle bones to communicate with ancestors to foretell events and provide guidance to the living. Diviners used flat bones, such as the scapula (shoulder blade) of an ox or a flat piece of tortoiseshell. The bone was inscribed with questions in a simple form of writing known today as oracle bone script. A heated metal rod held against the bone or shell caused cracks to form on the surface. The diviner interpreted the pattern of cracks and inscribed the answer on the bone. As Chinese civilization advanced, the oracle bone script became more standardized and simplified. It eventually evolved into the characters used today in modern Chinese writing.
Oracle bone divination declined around 1050 B.C., around the end of the Shang Dynasty. Hundreds of thousands of oracle bones have been discovered at sites in China. Used oracle bones were often ground up to use as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese scholar Wang Yirong discovered the significance of oracles bones in 1899. He observed inscriptions on bones that resembled logograms he had seen on ancient Chinese bronze vessels. A logogram is a symbol or character that represents a word or phrase. Wang and other scholars deciphered the oracle bone script and recognized it as an early form of Chinese writing.
See also Writing system.
