Shang Oracle Bone Records

Oracle bones are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron which were used in pyromancy – a form of divination – during the Late Shang period in ancient China.^¹ Scapulimancy is the specific term if ox scapulae were used for the divination, plastromancy if turtle plastrons were used.^¹ A recent count estimated that there were about 13,000 bones with a total of a little over 130,000 inscriptions in collections in China and some fourteen other countries.^¹