Case file · Cosmic event
Shang oracle-bone eclipse records
Divination bones from the Shang capital at Anyang record lunar and solar eclipses, the oldest datable sky observations in China.
1,200 BCE · 36.13, 114.31 · status: official
The account
Diviners of the late Shang kings carved questions and results on ox scapulae and turtle plastrons, including notes that the moon or sun 'had something', read as eclipses. Astronomers have used them to anchor the Shang chronology.
The sceptical view
The readings of individual inscriptions, and so the exact eclipse dates, are debated among specialists.