Over 3,000 years ago, the Chinese used animal bones to help make important decisions. To use an oracle bone, a diviner made two statements, one positive and one negative. Each oracle bone had two halves, a positive one and a negative one, with holes bored in each half. When the holes were heated with a burning stick, the bone cracked. The king would read the cracks to find the answers. No one knows exactly how the cracks were interpreted. Afterwards, information about the oracle was carved onto the bone.