Was there Oracle Bone Inscriptions before Shang Dynasty?

No, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was used for divination in Shang Dynasty. Before Shang dynasty, there were characters, mostly pictographs, but they were not handed down. In addition, five thousand years is not a simple textual research, and writing is only a sufficient condition for culture. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins is a relatively mature script at present, and the earliest Oracle Bone Inscriptions was found in Zhengzhou Mall. The previous characters were not found, but it was thought that there should be characters in Xia Dynasty. The reason why they were not found may be because few people mastered the characters at that time, and the official documents were not found, and the carrier was perishable. Some were also found on the pottery of Dawenkou culture in Neolithic age. Some of them are quite complicated, but they are not connected into sentences and are difficult to interpret. Five thousand years is the Xia Dynasty. Although the existence of Xia is controversial in archaeology in the west, there is an earlier generation of Yellow Emperor.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a very troublesome writing, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty has been relatively mature.

Therefore, Oracle Bone Inscriptions existed before the Shang Dynasty, and there were earlier scripts than Oracle Bone Inscriptions. I guess it was written on a clay tablet, but it was found abroad. It's easier to write on a clay tablet than to carve on a Oracle Bone Inscriptions.