How should Oracle Bone Inscriptions be identified?

You can look at the lettering format. There are two styles of inscriptions on tortoise shells: those carved on the left and right, and read from the outside to the inside. Specifically, the words engraved on the left side of tortoise shell are read from left to right, and those engraved on the right side are read from right to left. The other is the characters on both sides of the middle seam of tortoise shell, carved from the inside out, that is, the words on the left side of the middle seam are read from left to left, and the words on the right side are read from right to right. Inscriptions on cattle bones are generally engraved on the edge of the bones and read from the outside to the inside. Several Oracle Bone Inscriptions carved together, generally arranged from bottom to top.

Look at the font. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty crossed 12 Shang kings from Pan Geng to Di Xin for more than 270 years. The date of Oracle Bone Inscriptions can be clearly judged as the eight Shang kings from Wuding to Diyi. During this period, the writing style has changed. According to these changes and other archaeological achievements, some scholars divide Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins into five periods. The first period is Wuding period, and the font is relatively large, while the fifth period is relatively small, and some writing strokes are different, which can be found in Oracle Bone Inscriptions reference books (for example, The Compilation of Gaoming Ancient Characters by Zhonghua Book Company, 1980 edition).