The vast majority of the inscribed oracle bones were found at the Yinxu site in modern Anyang, and date to the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty.
The diviners named on the bones have been assigned to five periods by Dong Zuobin:
The kings were involved in divination in all periods, but in later periods most divinations were done personally by the king.

The extant inscriptions are not evenly distributed across these periods, with 55% coming from period I and 31% from periods III and IV.

A few oracle bones date to the beginning of the subsequent Zhou dynasty.

The earliest oracle bones (corresponding to the reigns of Wu Ding and Zu Geng) record dates using only the 60-day cycle of stems and branches, though sometimes the month was also given.

Attempts to determine an absolute chronology focus on a number of lunar eclipses recorded in inscriptions by the Bīn group, who worked during the reign of Wu Ding, possibly extending into the reign of Zu Geng.

Assuming that the 60-day cycle continued uninterrupted into the securely dated period, scholars have sought to match the recorded dates with calculated dates of eclipses.

There is general agreement on four of these, spanning dates from 1198 to 1180 BCE.

A fifth is assigned by some scholars to 1201 BCE.

From these data, the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project, relying on the statement in the "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter of the Book of Documents that the reign of Wu Ding lasted 59 years, dated it from 1250 to 1192 BCE.David Keightley argued that the "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter should not be treated as a historical text, because was composed much later, presents reign lengths as moral judgements, and gives other reign lengths that are contradicted by oracle bone evidence.

He dated the reign of Wu Ding as approximately from 1200 to 1181 BCE.Ken-ichi Takashima dates the earliest oracle bone inscriptions to 1230 BCE.

Period V inscriptions often identify numbered ritual cycles, making it easier to estimate the reign lengths of the last two kings.

The start of this period is dated 1100–1090 BCE by Keightley and 1101 BCE by the XSZ project.

Most scholars now agree that the Zhou conquest of the Shang took place close to 1046 or 1045 BCE, over a century later than the traditional date.
The vast majority of the inscribed oracle bones were found at the Yinxu site in modern Anyang, and date to the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty. The diviners named on the bones have been assigned to five periods by Dong Zuobin:
The kings were involved in divination in all periods, but in later periods most divinations were done personally by the king.
The extant inscriptions are not evenly distributed across these periods, with 55% coming from period I and 31% from periods III and IV.
A few oracle bones date to the beginning of the subsequent Zhou dynasty.
The earliest oracle bones (corresponding to the reigns of Wu Ding and Zu Geng) record dates using only the 60-day cycle of stems and branches, though sometimes the month was also given.
Attempts to determine an absolute chronology focus on a number of lunar eclipses recorded in inscriptions by the Bīn group, who worked during the reign of Wu Ding, possibly extending into the reign of Zu Geng.
Assuming that the 60-day cycle continued uninterrupted into the securely dated period, scholars have sought to match the recorded dates with calculated dates of eclipses.
There is general agreement on four of these, spanning dates from 1198 to 1180 BCE.
A fifth is assigned by some scholars to 1201 BCE.
From these data, the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project, relying on the statement in the "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter of the Book of Documents that the reign of Wu Ding lasted 59 years, dated it from 1250 to 1192 BCE.David Keightley argued that the "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter should not be treated as a historical text, because was composed much later, presents reign lengths as moral judgements, and gives other reign lengths that are contradicted by oracle bone evidence.
He dated the reign of Wu Ding as approximately from 1200 to 1181 BCE.Ken-ichi Takashima dates the earliest oracle bone inscriptions to 1230 BCE.
Period V inscriptions often identify numbered ritual cycles, making it easier to estimate the reign lengths of the last two kings.
The start of this period is dated 1100–1090 BCE by Keightley and 1101 BCE by the XSZ project.
Most scholars now agree that the Zhou conquest of the Shang took place close to 1046 or 1045 BCE, over a century later than the traditional date.
Oracle bone