Reflections | How ‘dragon bones’ shed new light on China’s history and its ancient societies
With the news that dinosaur fossils were found in Hong Kong, here is how China’s oracle bones changed our understanding of the Shang dynasty
Hong Kong authorities announced in October that dinosaur bone fossils had been discovered on Port Island, a remote, uninhabited island off the northeastern part of the special administrative region.
Fossilised remains of extinct animals were discovered long before the modern period. People in the prescientific era were very likely puzzled by, or even fearful of, bones or skeletons of creatures whose configurations and sizes resembled nothing they had ever seen in their lifetimes.
The skeletal remains of dinosaurs and other gargantuan prehistoric animals could have spawned the legends of dragons and other fearsome creatures in many cultures around the world.
For a long time before the 20th century, the Chinese used animal fossils as medicine, referring to such bones as long gu, or “dragon bones”.
