Oracle bone inscriptions are the primary sources of the Late Shang Dynasty. Since the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions in 1899, about 150,000 pieces of oracle bones have been excavated, and they were dated throughout the two centuries of the Late Shang period.

Oracle bone sequencing extracts accurate dates through the arrangement of correlated events among different inscriptions which contain time-related information, such as months and ganzhi (干支). In the past few years, our team has developed three versions of the dating calculation program, which apply approaches from the micro-chronology method developed by Edward L. Shaughnessy to the date-discrepancy algorithm which utilizes general astronomical data. These methods are capable of acquiring accurate dates from oracle bone inscriptions.

However, oracle bone sequencing is still required in advance. The order of oracle bone inscriptions is still a critical part of the oracle bone studies, yet we lack the assisting tools. Therefore, the project attempts to solve the problem with the aid of digital contrivances. In order to assist scholars to sequence the order of oracle bones and to gather archives, essays, and data, the project will utilize digital tools and algorithms to establish a visualized and user-oriented oracle bone sequencing concordance.