Page "History of China" Paragraph 16

Archaeological findings providing evidence for the existence of the Shang Dynasty, c. 1600 – 1046 BC, are divided into two sets.

The first set – from the earlier Shang period – comes from sources at Erligang, Zhengzhou, and Shangcheng.

The second set – from the later Shang or Yin ( 殷 ) period – is at Anyang, in modern-day Henan, which has been confirmed as the last of the Shang's nine capitals ( c. 1300 – 1046 BC ).

The findings at Anyang include the earliest written record of Chinese past so far discovered: inscriptions of divination records in ancient Chinese writing on the bones or shells of animals – the so-called " oracle bones ", dating from around 1200 BC.