Turtle Shell, Bones and Scripts

On a quite regular basis I come across discussions or articles about the Chinese translation of "Oracle" (i.e. the company I work for).

The Chinese Oracle logo some years ago.
(Image source: sysdba blog)

A Chinese student once translated the characters 甲骨文 to me as "Turtle Shell", "Bone" and "Script". At first this is slightly odd to the Western mind but when you do a bit more research you find articles and translations which simply refer to this phrase as "Oracle" (in the sense of the ancient foreseers).

In addition, the sages of the internet explain that in ancient China, records of divination and deeds were carved in tortoise shells or other animal bones as a means of storing information, hence the other translation "Oracle Bones". There you have it: This is an ancient form of database.

So the Chinese Oracle logo does not only mean "Oracle" per se but also refers to Oracle's flagship product, the database.

have a nice day

@lex