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Oracle bones: 3,250-year-old engraved bones and tortoise shells from ancient China were used to foretell the future

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80% Informative

There is no one "oracle bone" — about 13,000 have been found.

The surviving oracle bones are the earliest existing form of Chinese writing.

They date from the late Shang Dynasty, (circa 1250 to circa 1050 B.C. ) Many of the roughly 5,000 characters in the oracle bone script are still used in modern Chinese .

They were used in divinations for the Shang royal household.