Watch: Oracle bones
Narrator: One of the most exciting objects or artefacts we have from the Shang Dynasty are oracle bones. They are animal bones covered in ancient writing and were used to try to predict the future.
The King would call on a priest to help him talk to the gods.
King: The crops are dry, is the rain coming today?
Narrator: The priest would carve the question, ‘Will it rain today?’ into the oracle bone.
He would then heat it with a hot poker until it cracked. The priest would then try to interpret the cracks in the oracle bone and tell the king what he thought the gods were saying.
Priest: The gods say the rain will come today.
Narrator: We don’t know how often the priests got it right. Oracle bones are a primary source which means they are from the time of the Shang Dynasty.
Today, by knowing what questions the priests asked the gods, we can understand a lot about people’s lives and what was important to them.
What were oracle bones?
- The oracle bone below was found in China over 100 years ago.
- Historians realised that there are questions written on the bones.
- Oracle bones like this one are about 3500 years old.
What do we know about oracle bones?
- The writing on the oracle bones is the first form of Chinese writing.
- They tell us about the Shang dynasty rulers, the weather, battles, farming, births and deaths.
- Oracle bones are made from ox bone and turtle shell.
They were scraped and smoothed to make them easy to write on.
The Shang kings and priests (the diviners) would ask questions to the gods, by carving them on the bones.
- The bone was heated until it cracked. When this happened, the diviners used this to work out the answer.
Activities
Activity 1: Shang writing
Activity 2: Oracle bones quiz
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