What are the best resources for studying oracle bone inscriptions?
score:8
Accepted answer
I don't know how useful this will be to you but hopefully these links will at least lead you to what you are looking for.
The British Library has more than 450 oracle bones and there are some links on the page, such as a pdf catalog and digitized manuscripts. You could write them and ask if these have translations to view and they should know where you can get the vast catalogs you want.
https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/chinese-oracle-bones
Cambridge University Library has a collection of 614 oracle bones and they are creating a digital library.
https://phys.org/news/2016-03-year-old-chinese-oracle-bones-d.html
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-CUL-00001-00155/1
The British Library page mentions the collectors Samuel Couling and Frank Chalfant. Googling turned up a book by Chalfant called 'Early Chinese writing' on the internet archive.
https://archive.org/details/earlychinesewrit01chal/page/n3
Googling also turned up a book by David Keightley called 'Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China'. Even if it doesn't have lots of inscriptions, the bibliography should lead you to what you want (but its $120 on Amazon).
https://www.amazon.com/Sources-Shang-History-Oracle-Bone-Inscriptions/dp/0520054555
Some background information and additional sources on oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文):
- David Keightley, who passed away last year, was the leading American scholar on Early China, and has written extensively on archeology of oracle bone as well as interpretation of these scripts. One of his last works is These Bones Shall Rise Again : Selected Writings on Early China (SUNY, 2015) which summarises in one volume his work on this subject.
- Sun Yirang was the first Chinese scholar to decipher the oracle bone script, and his book is available in digital format ctext.org. It was published posthumously by Lu Zhenyou, who is himself a philologist. Unfortunately, none of their work is published in bi-lingual format (to my knowledge).
- In terms bi-lingual work or current scholars who can do this, a leading candidate (my opinion) is historian and archaeologist Li Feng, at Columbia University. He is multilingual, with expertise in bronze script, which is closely related oracle bone script.
- You can find more pictures and material on oracle bones if you search online for Yinxu Archaeology Project, "Yinxu inscriptions" or combination of related words because this is the actual location, and it's close to Anyang.
- A Chinese source, sometimes with bi-lingual publications is Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (website)
More post
- 📝 Were the Puritans for a State Church?
- 📝 A world in the moon?
- 📝 Who was the first American woman to become a millionaire?
- 📝 Could the Russians Have Done Better at the Battle of Tsushima Straits Than They Actually Did?
- 📝 Did the Vikings use horses in battle?
- 📝 When was glass first used to protect art?
- 📝 What impact did the migration of Germanic tribes have on languages in the rest of Europe?
- 📝 Did Averroes really try to bury light in an attempt to create gold, or was that invented by Victor Hugo?
- 📝 Where in Basel was the first Zionist Congress held in 1897?
- 📝 War deaths in France, 1919/1920
- 📝 What did it mean to be a Grecian in late-18th Century British schools?
- 📝 What happened to the Soviet emissaries at the siege of Budapest?
- 📝 Intersection Between Computer Science and History?
- 📝 What were the main causal forces leading to rise of fascist movement and fascist government in Germany?
- 📝 How were years numbered on the Republican Calendar?
- 📝 In WWI, How were the Germans able to maintain a submarine blockade of Britain?
- 📝 Did everyone have to carry identity papers in Nazi Germany?
- 📝 Why did Germany have so many important scientists and thinkers around the turn of the 20th century?
- 📝 Is a "buckle plate" the same thing as a "buckle chape"?
- 📝 Cold War proxy countries views on nationalism or decolonization?
- 📝 Why were Japanese escort ships not numerous at the battle of Bismarck Sea?
- 📝 How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?
- 📝 What are the themes of post-WW2 Polish immigration to the United States?
- 📝 Are there any Egyptian hieroglyphs representing four sounds?
- 📝 Austria and Iron Curtain during Cold War
- 📝 During the Chola dynasty how extensive was the use of Sanskrit in government and by the people?
- 📝 What was Sir John Mandeville's source regarding Beersheba and its chronology?
- 📝 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact - Where was Hitler?
- 📝 Where can you find online the voting records for the both Houses of the UK Parliament?
- 📝 How culpable was Captain Smith for the Titanic disaster?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What are the best resources for studying oracle bone inscriptions?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 What are the primary sources for the Mongol sack of Baghdad?
- 📝 What are the most comprehensive historical references for ancient India?
- 📝 What are the main reasons historians give for the Soviet Union's collapse?
- 📝 What are the historical reasons for the conventional map orientation?
- 📝 What are the historical reasons for religious and political negative attitudes towards h*m*sexuality?
- 📝 What are the tabs/spaces for in the Beowulf text
- 📝 What are the social preconditions for division of labour, when compared in different emerging civilizations?
- 📝 In Studying the peoples of pre-Roman Britain, what are our primary reference sources?
- 📝 What is / are the specific reason(s) for Vyacheslav Molotov's fall from grace with Joseph Stalin?
- 📝 What is the best book to learn about medicine in medieval times? (research for a novel)
- 📝 What are the best primary textual sources I could point to regarding the existence of Julius Caesar?
- 📝 What primary sources are there for Charles I's seizure of gold from the Tower mint?
- 📝 What are the "sexual causes" for the French Revolution cited in Wikipedia?
- 📝 In a broad sense, what are the reasons for the history-spanning persecution of Jews?
- 📝 What are the Ancient Egyptian words for these concepts?
- 📝 What are the reasons for the failure of Soviet Union at agriculture?
- 📝 What are some good references for the history of legal business entities?
- 📝 How did AIDS generate losses? And what are the methods to compensate for them?
- 📝 What is the primary source evidence for the theory that the African Ancient Egyptians are not black Africans whose origin is sub-Saharan Africa?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
- 📝 What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?
- 📝 What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?