While dating back 3,000 years, no one recognized how special the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty were until 1899. Yet the antiquarian who first perceived the value of the artifacts, etched with ...

They date from the late Shang Dynasty, (circa 1250 B.C. to circa 1050 B.C.), although the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty ruled most of northern China from about 1600 B.C. — the earliest traditional Chinese ...

Since farmers began digging up ancient bone fragments in the fields around the Yellow River in eastern China over 100 years ago, researchers have been poring over the mysterious script found on them.