The use of bones in record-keeping was unique to the ancient civilization that developed in China. This bones were known as Oracle Bones.
The oracle bones were turtle shells and animal bones (mostly scapulae), in which inscriptions have been found that form the oldest significant corpus of archaic Chinese writing, which contain important historical information, such as the complete royal genealogy of the Shang Dynasty. This confirmed the existence of this dynasty, which some scholars questioned until its appearance.
Since its recognition as support for Chinese archaic writing in 1899, more than two hundred thousand engraved bones have been found, of which some forty-eight thousand can be consulted in printed editions, most of the oracle bones are dated over the last two hundred and thirty years of the Shang dynasty, about three thousand two hundred years ago. The study of the inscriptions concluded that they consist in the registration of divinatory rituals, using pyromancy or divination by fire or heat, performed for or by the royal houses.
