Case file · Declassified record
'Dragon bones' turn out to be writing
In 1899 the scholar Wang Yirong noticed carved signs on 'dragon bones' sold as medicine in Beijing and recognised them as ancient script, leading to the discovery of the Shang oracle bones.
1899 CE · 39.90, 116.40 · status: official
The account
For centuries apothecaries had ground up fossils and old bones as dragon remains. The trail led to Anyang and to the earliest Chinese writing, and later to Peking Man and the giant ape Gigantopithecus.