Inscribed Turtle Plastron

This oracle bone, dating from the reign of Wu Ding (r. ca. 1250–ca. 1192 BCE) in the late Shang dynasty, records the divination and its results performed by the diviner Wei 韋 on the day of Bingzi. Regarding the inscription, the diviner uses both a positive and negative statement—namely “I will have a good harvest this year” 我受年 and “I will not have a good harvest this year” 我不其受年—to divine the “charge” (topic or event) concerning whether there would be a good yield that year. Carved oracle bone inscriptions are generally beside, or avoiding, the divination crack, called bizhao 避兆. In the case of this piece, however, the inscription is on, or interacting with, the divination crack itself, a phenomenon termed fanzhao 犯兆. Red, yellow, and black pigments have been applied to portions of the inscription, and a Raman spectroscopy analysis has determined that they are haematite, goethite, and carbon black, respectively. More specifically, haematite was discovered when analyzing the character ruo 若 (“smoothly” or “successfully”) found in the clause “Duoyin ruo” 多尹若, with Duoyin being a political group (often translated as “Governors” or  “Commanders”) not related by blood to the royal household, of the positive statement; goethite was analyzed from nian 年 (“year”) in the negative statement; and carbon black was found applied to mian ???? located on back of the tortoise plastron. Product from Museum of Institute of History and Philology For full collection record see: https://ndweb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/archaeo2_public/System/Artifact/Detail_Basic.jsp?efn=A1GLqy/3U84=