Dear all,
The lecture titled How are oracle bone inscriptions deciphered? will be hosted on November 24th (Friday) at 18:30 in the the Library Room 302, welcome!
Speaker: Guolong Lai, Professor of Humanities, General Education Center of Westlake University
Inviter: TU Dongdong, Assistant Professor of archaeology, Institute of Humanities, ShanghaiTech University
Summary:Since the discovery of oracle bones in 1899, significant achievements have been made in the study of Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions. The decipherment of oracle bone inscriptions is the most fundamental and crucial first step in oracle bone studies. From a comparative perspective, this lecture compares the decipherment of oracle bone inscriptions with the decipherment of ancient texts from other civilizations, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mesopotamian cuneiform script, and ancient Mesoamerican Mayan glyphs. The aim is to enhance our understanding of the distinctive characteristics of Chinese culture itself and its commonalities and differences with other civilizations. It is hoped that this comparison will provide insights for a deeper contemplation of the decipherment of Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions.