Zooarchaeological Research of Oracle Bones from Lower Xiajiadian Culture

Author(s): Yayi Wang; Quanjia Chen; Chunxue Wang

Year: 2017

Summary

Lower Xiajiadian Culture is an early Bronze Age archaeological culture (4,000 BP) in Northern China, located at western Liaoning and southeastern Inner Mongolia. This study explores two different kinds of oracle bones from this cultural period: (1) made of cattle scapular was thought to have been burnt in divination and (2) bone of a mid- to large-sized mammal hoof,thrown during divination. The latter has been scarcely mentioned in the previous research and has not usually been treated as an oracle bone. Through use of zooarchaeological methods, literature comparisons and ethnoarchaeology these two kinds of oracle bones are examined in order to explore human behavior of divination in the Lower Xiajiadian Cultural period.

Cite this Record

Zooarchaeological Research of Oracle Bones from Lower Xiajiadian Culture. Yayi Wang, Quanjia Chen, Chunxue Wang. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, British Columbia. 2017 ( tDAR id: 432034)

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15741