Editing Oracle bone (section)

== Official excavations ==
[[File:Oracle bones pit.JPG|thumb|right|Reconstruction of oracle bone pit YH127 at Yinxu]]
By the time of the establishment of the Institute of History and Philology by [[Fu Sinian]] at the [[Academia Sinica]] in 1928, the source of the oracle bones had been traced back to modern Xiaotun ({{zhi|c=小屯村}}) village at [[Anyang]] in Henan. Official archaeological excavations led by [[Li Ji (archeologist)|Li Ji]], the father of Chinese archaeology,{{sfn|Xu|2002|p=9}} between 1928 and 1937 discovered 20,000 oracle bone pieces, which now form the bulk of the Academia Sinica's collection in Taiwan and constitute about 1/5 of the total discovered.{{efn|over 100,000 pieces have been found in total.{{sfn|Qiu|2000|p=61}}{{sfn|Keightley|1978a|p=xiii}}}} The major archaeologically excavated pits of bones have been:
* Pit YH127 in Xiaotun North (1936), with over 17,000 inscribed pieces.
* Xiaotun South (1977–1979), with 4,612 inscribed pieces.
* Huayuangzhuang East (1991), with 561 inscribed pieces.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2013|p=684}}

When deciphered, the inscriptions on the oracle bones were revealed to be records of the divinations performed for or by the royal household. These, together with royal-sized tombs,{{efn|Eleven royal-sized tombs were found.{{sfn|Xu|2002|p=10}} This exactly matches the number of kings who should have been buried at Yin (the 12th king died in the Zhou conquest and would not have received a royal burial).}} proved beyond a doubt for the first time the existence of the Shang dynasty, which had recently been doubted, and the location of its last capital, Yin. Today, Xiaotun at Anyang is thus also known as the Ruins of Yin, or [[Yinxu]].