Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries

I have been trying to decipher this oracle bone. This particular bone has been written about online a little. They all say the pictogram scripts revolve around a supernova event 1300 BC. I only have a couple of books that have been using. One called Mao King Ting. It is about the pictograms on a bronze vessel. The second book, much more helpful is called, The origins of Chinese Characters. A third book on the way is called, These Bones Shall Rise Again, but will not be here until Aug 27.

So far I can see nothing on this oracle bone specifically about a supernova. It seems people are using the group of three circles pictogram as meaning supernova. I don't think that is correct..

Any way, the pic below shows what I have come up with so far. The pictograms outlined in green are the ones I could sure use some help with. Maybe they will be in the book that is in the mail.

The only lines that are making some sense are the last two rows.. One does talk about "great constellation or stars above men standing on land, mountain" . At least that is what I am getting.

The last row seems in part to be , "the seventh day, fourth lunar month/moon". I do not know the second pictogram from the top, or the last one that I can only guess is either a season, or the king of the period this bone was inscribed.

In a nutshell, any help in completing the entire event/story line would be greatly appreciated. I think the first two rows are not making much sense and may not help in the end, but the last two rows would give me the most relevant storyline .

Going to have this oracle bone painted, and would like to have a calligrapher add some seal script to the painting describing the story line as best as possible.

Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries |