Shang Dynasty - Part I - Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Oracle Bones

-Of course, during the time of the Xia dynasty, there were other civilizations which surrounded the Yellow River Valley, but we don't know much about them (or the Xia dynasty (if it even existed) for that matter).
   -We don't actually know when the Shang dynasty started.
   -Major sources for the history of the Shang dynasty come from the same sources used for the Xia dynasty, in addition to Liu Xin (c. 50 BC - 23 AD) (AKA Liu Xiu or Zijun), a scholar of the Western Han dynasty.
   -Another problem of dates and chronology is that the Chinese government-sponsored "Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project" (1996-2000) has been accused of being corrupted by nationalism, ethnocentrism, and propaganda, but this of course has also been disputed.
   -Also, this dynasty has 2 names- "Shang" (obviously) and "Yin" (especially in Japan and Korea (은), which apparently comes from the name of one of the capital cities (Yin, modern-day Anyang, Henan Province).
-It was from the Shang dynasty that Gojoseon got a lot of its technology (the Shang referred to Gojoseon simply as the "Eastern Barbarians").
-Unfortunately, it's really difficult to verify anything during this time until we get to the Zhou dynasty, in which shit starts to become more clear.
-A lot of what we know about the Shang dynasty comes from recent archaeological discoveries (20th century), much of which were from what the Chinese called "dragon bones" or "oracle bones" ("jiagu"), which were (and still are!) being used Chinese pyromancy.
   -These bones were often just the remains of ancient ox or turtles, but they had a bunch of writing on them, so once scholars (most notably Wang Yirong (1845-1900), Director of the Chinese Imperial Academy ("Guozijian") in Beijing, realized what these bones actually were, they freaked out about how these priceless pieces of archaeology were being ground up and used for magic and traditional medicine.
   -A lot of them were traced back to Henan Province and the Yellow River Valley.
-Thanks to the oracle bones, we can safely assume that they were primarily an agricultural and hunting people (and possibly the same as the Xia dynasty civilization).
   -Lots of warfare, but also evidence of religion and currency as well.
   -Also built buildings and walls via a process known as "rammed earth" (which is still used today, and is found in the archaeology of every civilization).
      -Wooden structures also built during this time as well.
   -Also evidence of slavery, ritual burials, and other shit.