Bone-deep roots reach out On the 20th anniversary of Yinxu's UNESCO listing, a new IP project brings inscriptions of over three millennia to modern life, report Yang Feiyue and Shi Baoyin in Anyang, Henan. By Yang Feiyue/Shi Baoyin | China Daily | Updated: 2026-07-14 08:01

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202607/14/WS6a5452b6a310986e2b464f36.html During the late Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC), on the banks of the Huanhe River in what is now Henan province, a scribe lowered his bronze knife onto a polished tortoise shell. Firelight flickered across his face as the blade traced characters into the bone. He was performing divination on behalf of the king, inscribing questions onto bone or shell before applying heat to create cracks that were interpreted as answers from the spirit world. The brief, urgent inscriptions he left behind became the earliest known written records of Chinese civilization.