Gjentakelse — Oracle bones

Background

're-discovered' to scholarship around 1898 or 1899; within a decade, the scholar Luo Zhenyu (羅振玉) recognised their importance as historical sources (the existence of the Shang dynasty had previously begun to be questioned).

Inscribed on ox shoulder-blades and the flat under-part of turtle shells, they record questions to which answers were sought by divination at the court of the royal house of Shang 商, which ruled central China between the 16th and 11th centuries B.C.E.

Cambridge University Library (introduction to Hopkins Collection)

Later

major excavations of pits containing thousands of examples, including in 1936 (Xiaotun North) and 1991 (Huayaunzhuang East).