Script of the most ancient Chinese writing so far discovered; the characters are inscribed on tortoise shells or animal bones as records of divination carried out by the royals in the latter half of the Shang dynasty (14th to 11th century BCE). The vast majority of the oracle bones were excavated from the modern Xiaotun Village of Anyang City, Henan Province (or Yinxu, the ruins of the last capital of the Shang dynasty).
