Oracle bones inscribed with the earliest known Chinese characters that are unearthed from the Yinxu Ruins of Anyang and housed at the Chinese Archaeological Museum in Beijing. [Photo by Fang ...

Academia Sinica, the nation’s top research institute, will study the 4,000 Chinese “oracle” bones preserved in Taiwan, striving for the first time to decode the secrets embedded in the ancient relics.

For over a century, generations of scholars have pursued the ultimate dream of decoding the oracle bone script, China's earliest known writing system. Inscribed on ox scapulae or turtle shells, the ...