# Unmerged variants inflate the unread count

> Still possible: A large share of the unread classes are variants, miscuts or damaged forms of graphs already read, so the number of distinct unread words…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/answers/ANS0DEDS2J0FVE4/unmerged-variants-inflate-the-unread-count  
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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Unread oracle bone characters](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered)[What are the roughly 3,000 unread oracle-bone graphs, and how many of them can ever be read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/questions/QST0DEDQEESA0GT/what-are-the-roughly-3-000-unread-oracle-bone-graphs-and-how)Answer

Answer · Unread oracle bone characters

# Unmerged variants inflate the unread count

A large share of the unread classes are variants, miscuts or damaged forms of graphs already read, so the number of distinct unread words is far below the headline figures.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- A period-aware merge of HUST-OBC unread classes reduces them by more than half.
- Many unread classes are singletons from a single rubbing.

## What would rule it out

- A documented merge leaves more than 3,000 distinct unread graphs.
- Most unread classes occur on several bones in consistent form.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[HUST-OBC catalogues 9,411 unread image classes against 1,588 read ones, while palaeographers count 2,000 to 3,000…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/evidence/EVD0DEDTG4YX83Y/hust-obc-catalogues-9-411-unread-image-classes-against-1-588)

Supported

FOR

[Even the expert-merged tallies leave 2,112 unread graphs of 3,763, so variant merging alone cannot remove the problem.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/evidence/EVD0DEDTGF070DA/even-the-expert-merged-tallies-leave-2-112-unread-graphs-of)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What are the roughly 3,000 unread oracle-bone graphs, and how many of them can ever be read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/questions/QST0DEDQEESA0GT/what-are-the-roughly-3-000-unread-oracle-bone-graphs-and-how)

Open6 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Unmerged variants inflate the unread count [Answer ANS0DEDS2J0FVE4]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDS2J0FVE4
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDS2J0FVE4

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/sessions/SES0DEDVWXKJN4C/session-1-the-unread-oracle-bone-characters-seeded-corpus) · 31 Oct 2026

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