An oracle bone is a deer or wild boar scapula bone
featuring lines of incised round grooves and traces
of heat application used for divination. The shapes
of the cracks formed when the heat was applied
were used to predict good or bad fortune. In some
cases, grooves were not cut into the bone. Close
observation of oracle bones excavated from Samhan
shell middens reveals blackened sections of the bone
that were burnt by re or holes featuring circular burnt
traces.