According to curator Zhang, in archaeological studies, the emphasis is often placed on preserving cultural relics at their original sites. "Context is crucial; displaying the same artifacts in different locations can significantly alter their meaning. Anyang is the home of the bones. Therefore, their return is many senior jiaguwen specialists' decades-long dream," says Zhang.

Song says the oracle bones from Tianjin Museum stand out not only because they belong to the early unearthed batch, but because they are large with many words and diversified content related to the geographical conditions, climate, farming and hunting, transportation, military affairs, religion and daily details of people during the last Shang period.

He is especially impressed by a piece stored at the museum that has words in different sizes. Some words are about 3 centimeters in length and width while others are 0.5 cm — all from the same article.

It's like a calligraphy work in which the writer changes the style with his emotions. The words are not in a standard printed style. The contrast in their sizes makes you feel someone was carving them by hand instead of using a machine, he says.

"I stared at the inscriptions and was immersed in communicating with ancient people. I felt its traces of life," says Song.

Contact the writers at wangru1@chinadaily.com.cn