Oracle Bone Inscriptions Multi-modal Dataset (OBIMD)

Dataset Overview

The Oracle Bone Inscriptions Multi-modal Dataset (OBIMD) is the first large-scale corpus providing pixel-aligned rubbings and facsimiles, character-level annotations, and sentence-level transcriptions and reading sequences for oracle bone inscription (OBI) research. This dataset enables multi-modal learning across visual, structural, and linguistic dimensions, laying the foundation for end-to-end OBI recognition and interpretation.

Dataset Statistics

• Total OBI images: 10,077 across five Shang Dynasty phases
• Annotated characters: 93,652
• Missing character positions: 21,667 (due to fragmentation)
• Sentences: 21,941 syntactically validated
• Non-sentential elements: 4,192

Data Structure

The dataset follows a three-level hierarchy:

1. Image-level: Contains rubbing and facsimile pairs
2. Sentence-level: Groups characters into meaningful units
3. Character-level: Detailed annotations for each character

Data Fields

Data Modalities

1. Rubbing images: Original scanned images of oracle bones
2. Facsimile images: Expert reconstructions aligned with rubbings
3. Character annotations: Bounding boxes and classifications
4. Sentence groupings: Semantic organization of characters
5. Reading sequences: Order of characters within sentences

Hierarchical Character Metadata Supplement

This folder contains supporting materials for the character hierarchy used in OBIMD. It includes:

1. Sub-character Images: Images of sub-character variants, stored in a two-level folder structure. The top-level directory is named by the main character UID, and each subfolder is named by the corresponding sub-character UID.
2. Sub-character to Glyph Code Point Mapping (XLSX): Maps each sub-character UID to the platform-specific glyph code point used by the Oracular Digital Platform font.
3. Sub-character to Main-character Mapping (XLSX): Maps each sub-character UID to its parent main character UID in the Oracular Digital Platform.
4. Main-character → Reference Modern Character (JSON): For each main-character UID, the JSON provides a platform-provided reference modern Chinese character (a standardized surrogate used for lookup and navigation). Note: this mapping is for reference only and is not intended as a final philological interpretation, since oracle bone inscriptions decipherment remains ongoing.

Usage Notes

The dataset is designed to support various research tasks:

• Character detection and recognition
• Sentence-level character clustering
• Character reordering within sentences
• Multi-modal analysis (rubbing vs. facsimile)

License

This model is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

Citation

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite: