Bronze and Iron AgesIdeas & Belief Chinese writing on oracle bones c. 1,250 BCETurning point Shang diviners carve questions on bones and shells. The script evolves into modern Chinese characters. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Copper smelting → Bronze Age begins → Shang dynasty → Chinese writing on oracle bones Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comOracle bone (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickBookDavid N. KeightleySources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze-Age China ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeShang oracle bones Chinese writing ↗Editor's pick