A summer study program for schoolchildren was held at the Yinxu archaeological site in Anyang, Henan. After touring excavation areas and the museum, participants made rubbings of oracle bone inscriptions and worked through a bronze casting demonstration.

Yinxu is the late Shang dynasty capital site where, since systematic excavation began in 1928, oracle bones have been unearthed in large numbers. Their inscriptions count among the earliest confirmed forms of the Chinese writing system.

What they see and handle

The program starts with enlarged models of characters incised on turtle plastrons and ox scapulae. Students then take rubbings themselves, feeling with their fingertips how each stroke was cut.

The bronze segment reconstructs piece-mold casting with models. The large bronze ding vessels recovered at Yinxu are among the clearest evidence of the metalworking of the period.

People who share a script

For students in regions that use Chinese characters, oracle bone script is an encounter with the root of the writing they use daily. That holds equally for pupils at Chinese schools in Korea and for students across Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

Anyang and Yinxu have become a regular stop for youth group visits from Chinese communities abroad. Vacation programs generally run by advance booking, with numbers and dates set by the site's management notices.