These inscriptions are known by the name of bones oraculares. There are shells of turtle and bones of animals (mostly shoulder blades), in which inscriptions have been in the archaic Chinese writing.

Most of the bones oraculares is dated on the last two hundred thirty years of the dynasty Shang, it does approximately three thousand two hundred years.

Its use is very limited because it is not available material in large numbers and seems that largely they were used like divinatory texts, perhaps for the fact of being a part of a living being on whom he writes himself. Be as it is, it does not look like a material that could be used on a large scale, of easy storage and simultaneously easily to transport.