Qishan (CNS) -- Lei Xingshan, professor of archaeology at Peking University, disclosed on Sunday that a midden of oracle bone scripts, which are animal bones and turtle shells used in Bronze Age (3000BC-700BC) divination rituals, was excavated at the ruins of the Temple of the Duke of Zhou (1046BC–256BC) in Qishan County, in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
A large number of oracle bone scripts from the same period have been discovered in this historical site, almost twice as many as in other regions around China.
This particular midden has been deemed to have high historical value and is expected to contribute greatly to the study of oracle bone scripts from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046BC–771BC), said the scholar.
Among the objects is a shoulder blade of an ox, about 15 cm long and 10 cm wide, with six characters inscribed on it. The very special thing about this object, said Professor Lei, is that an inscribed oracle bone has never before been found that was filed into the shape of a shovel. Neither was any hole drilled into the bone, nor is there any other trace that it was used for divination.
Some experts say the bone might have originally been used to practice inscription and later repurposed for more ordinary tasks.
