OC 014 · Oracle bone · Asia

An inscribed oracle bone

A pale, flat piece of animal bone, wider at one end, with a few small carved signs
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via The Met Open Access.
Number on this site
OC 014
What it is
Oracle bone
Made
Shang dynasty, about 1600 to 1046 BC (the Met gives no closer date)
Period
Shang dynasty
Material
Inscribed bone
Size
23.5 cm long, 12.7 cm wide
Now held by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum number
67.43.16

A piece of bone used to ask a question of the spirits. A diviner applied heat to hollows cut in the back until the bone cracked, read the cracks, and the question could then be carved beside them.1,2,3

Where it sits in human time

Made about 3,300 years ago. On this strip, each step to the right is ten times closer to today.

300,000 years ago10,0003,0001,000100nowAn inscribed oracle bone

Seen in

Filed under

Sources for this page

Every number on this page comes from one of these. How we check.

Last reviewed 12 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

  1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Oracle bone. Inscribed bone. Shang dynasty, ca. 1600–1046 BCE. Collection record 60696, Open Access (CC0). www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60696Used for: An inscribed oracle bone, 23.5 cm long. Checked 12 November 2026.
  2. Keightley, D. N. (1978). Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press. search.worldcat.org/search?q=Sources%20of%20Shang%20History%20Keightley%201978Used for: How a divination was made and recorded, what the kings asked about, and the inscription about Lady Hao’s childbirth (Heji 14002). Checked 12 November 2026.
  3. Museum of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Exhibition: the preparation of oracle bones. museum.sinica.edu.tw/en/exhibitions/158/Used for: How shells and shoulder blades were cut, polished and drilled before they were cracked. Checked 12 November 2026.