The Chinese Script Has Roots In Herder Fortune Telling Practices

The full account is worth reading.

Anyone who has studied the history of writing in China is aware that the earliest manifestation of the Sinitic script dates to around the 13th century BC, under the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1600- BC). It is referred to as jiǎgǔwén 甲骨文 ("oracle bone writing") and was used primarily (almost exclusively) for the purpose of divination. The most ideal bones for this purpose were ox scapulae, since they were broad and flat, and had other suitable properties. . . . 

Since this type of divination was a combination of scapulimancy and pyromancy, we may refer to it as pyromantic scapulimancy or pyro-scapulimancy.

What sort of people are likely to have developed this practice and utilized it for divining the outcome of impending events? Nomads with herded animals whose flesh they roasted on campfires.

From Language Log.