Bones, Stones and Other Items Used for Divination Found in Armenian Dig

Are these "dough stamps" -- designed to impress raw dough with images that were used in divination?  Or were they used in an entirely different way altogether, hmmm?  These look similar to ancient game pieces to me.  Might they have been used in an elaborate ritual to make impressions on a chessboard-like grid drawn into the dirt of the sacred sanctuary where the diviner practiced -- one not unlike the Dogon "fox print" ritual still practiced today?

Image courtesy of Professor Adam Smith, from news article at The Daily
Mail (UK -- see link at end of this post).  "Dough stamps" discovered
in three different ancient Armenian sanctuaries.  

Story and photos at Phys Org

Bronze Age bones offer evidence of political divination

Mar 13, 2015 by H. Roger Segelken

Trying to divine the future of a precarious administration, "House of Cards" President Frank Underwood enters the inner sanctum with a trusted adviser. "It's really a crapshoot," the adviser says, and the president nods. The bourbon is drained, cigars are snuffed, and the political leader emerges with a more confident sense of what's to come.

"It really was a crapshoot, with very high stakes for sovereign rulers in a turbulent time," says Cornell archaeologist Adam T. Smith, interpreting evidence from 3,300-year-old Bronze Age shrines, ensconced within a hilltop fortress on the Tsaghkahovit Plain of central Armenia. Smith, a professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, studies the role that the material world – everyday objects, representational media, natural and built landscapes – plays in the political lives of ancient and modern-day people.

Dice-like knucklebones used for osteomancy and colored stones used for lithomancy (divination with bones and stones, respectively) were found deep within the ruins of the fallen citadel of Gegharot.

Aleuromancy (divination with freshly ground flour) is a likely explanation for implements found in one of three shrines, Smith and Cornell Ph.D. candidate Jeffrey F. Leon report in their October 2014 American Journal of Archaeology article, "Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia." > Excavations conducted at Gegharot since 2002 have turned up a variety of ceremonial, iconic and fortune-telling objects:

• censers and basins for burning aromatic plant materials that could induce a trance state;
• covered storage containers made of clay where pollen analysis found evidence of wheat;
• drinking vessels, probably for long-gone wine;
• sculpted clay idols "with vaguely anthropomorphic features and hornlike protrusions" and stele (standing blocks) the archaeologists say "likely served as focal point for ritual attention";
• grain-grinding implements and stamp seals to make impressions in flour dough;
• dozens of knucklebones (also called astragali) of cattle, sheep and goats with certain sides blackened like the markings on dice; and
• polished stones in colors ranging from black and dark grey to red, green and white.

The Tsaghkahovit Plain was sparsely populated until around 1500 B.C. when a nameless people (they left no written record of what they called themselves) began to build strongholds and new institutions of rule there.

"It was a time of radical inequality and centralized practices of economic redistribution," Smith says, "and the political leaders were scrambling to hold on to their power. Knowing what the future held was critically important." [Sounds like the USA today.]

The diviner, Smith says, was a kind of primordial actuary, assessing risks and advising on pathways forward. "We call them 'shrines' because of two distinctive qualities of the spaces: They were quite intimate in scale, with not much room for public spectacle," Smith explains, "yet they appear to have been religiously charged places, designed and built to host esoteric rituals with consecrated objects – secretive rites focused on managing risks by diagnosing present conditions and prognosticating futures."

 The Bronze Age people who tried to predict futures there had a quarter-millennium run, until about 1150 B.C. Their divination paraphernalia, meticulously unearthed by the archaeologists, looks as if it had been abandoned in place, moments before the inhabitants fled some cataclysm.

 Without Bronze Age mystics to interpret the bones and stones, it's hard to know whether the citadel's demise was presciently foreseen. As the fictional President Underwood said: "It's not the beginning of the story I fear; it's not knowing how it will end."

 More information: "Divination and Sovereignty: The Late Bronze Age Shrines at Gegharot, Armenia American" Journal of Archaeology Vol. 118, No. 4 (October 2014), pp. 549–563 DOI: 10.3764/aja.118.4.0549

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See also interesting interpretative article on the findings reported at The Daily Mail (UK) - where else, LOL!  The article does provide additional information along with several maps, diagrams and photographs of the excavation site and some of the excavated artifacts -- which are very interesting.  Check them out and see what you think.

Ancient Chinese Diviners Used Trickery...

Gee - ya think!  Duh!

Researchers find trickery in ancient Chinese divination

English.news.cn 2013-05-13 16:54:20

ZHENGZHOU, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists revealed Monday that the divination rituals used by ancient Chinese thousands of years ago may have featured some behind-the-scenes trickery.

During the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC -- 1046 BC), emperors relied heavily on prophecy and divination to help them make decisions on matters ranging from domestic policy to the meanings of their dreams.

Zhou Era tortoise shell used for divinination.  From my
stash of images - source not recorded in my description.
 

One divination technique involved burning turtle shells or cattle bones, with the diviner predicting the future based on the patterns of cracks left in the materials after burning them.

"We have learned from our experiments that the appearance of certain crack patterns is basically controllable," said Hou Yanfeng, a researcher at an archaeology laboratory under the Henan Provincial Administration of Cultural Heritage.




"During the Shang Dynasty, the emperor was the leader of the diviners. Thus, it is possible that he controlled public opinion via oracle bone divination," he said. [Of course!  They who controlled the "media" of the day controlled the message... No different today.]

Ma Xiaolin, deputy director of the administration, said researchers made replicas of oracle bones excavated from central Henan and carried out a month's worth of experiments to figure out precisely how they were created and how they were used in divination.

"Based on saw, cut and burn marks on 185 fragments of oracle bones and shells, our researchers gained insight into the manufacturing techniques that were used to make oracle bones during the late Shang period," Ma said.

The experiments have been recognized by experts from the U.S., France and Spain, Ma said.
The lab went into operation in 2005 and has participated in major archaeological research projects.

Editor: Fu Peng

An Exciting Find in Shaanxi

From the Peoples' Daily Online

Engraved tortoise shells found in Shaanxi

By Jiang Feng (People's Daily)
15:43, December 15, 2011
Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

An archaeological team made up of archaeologists from the School of Archaeology and Museology under Peking University and Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute has unearthed more than 10,000 tortoise shells at the Zhougong Temple site in Shaanxi province.

These tortoise shells date back to the Western Zhou dynasty and were engraved with nearly 2,600 recognizable characters. A tortoise shell unearthed in late November presents a scene of two people practicing divination simultaneously for the first time.

Lei Xingshan, head of the archaeological team and a professor from Peking University’s School of Archaeology and Museology, said that since the beginning of excavations on the Zhougong Temple site in 2004, they have pieced together the tribal structures during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Lei said the unearthed tortoise shells record information about dream interpretation, ancestor worship, troop movements and other matters.
Tortoise shells found in one pit were once used by the Duke of Zhou, also known as Zhou Gong.

“Previously, archaeologists found no more than 1,100 characters engraved on Xizhou tortoise shells. The large amounts of tortoise shells found at the Zhougong Temple site are enough to bring about a qualitative change in the inscriptions study of the Xizhou tortoise shells,” Lei said.

Some prior posts on tortoise shell divination:

Western Zhou Dynasty Tortoise Shell
June 20, 2010

Record Oracle Bones Discovered in China
November 13, 2008

"Divination" - Today...

What used to be the domain of shamans, priests, priestesses, oracles, and fey people who did not want the gift of foretelling the future has, unfortunately, created a very active sub-culture of frauds and phoneys today who promise to tell your "fortune" for big bucks!  I just wonder - are these people real "Gypsies" or are they "tinkers" of Irish origin (not descended from the Romany). 

8 charged in alleged $40M Fla fortune-telling scam
AP – 5 hrs ago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors say a South Florida family of gypsies amassed $40 million in a fortune-telling scam, warning victims that if they didn't follow their advice, terrible things would happen to them or their loved ones.

Details spilled out in federal court Friday after eight people were arrested earlier this week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurence Bardfeld said victims who were going through vulnerable phases forked over cash, gold coins and jewelry. The defendants promised victims they wouldn't spend the money, but then refused to return it.

The Sun Sentinel (http://lb.vg/gLR1E) reports that one victim, a bestselling author, gave an estimated $20 million.

Authorities started investigating in 2007 after a victim complained about losing $3,000. An attorney for one family member said the clan provided counseling for victims who had nowhere to turn.

From story at South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Fortune tellers defrauded bestselling author of $20 million, feds say
By Paula McMahon, Sun Sentinel
8:42 p.m. EDT, August 19, 2011

From storefront businesses in upscale Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, a family of fortune tellers ran a $40-million scheme that defrauded people from near and far since 1991, federal prosecutors said in court Friday.

Among the victims was a bestselling author who gave an estimated $20 million to the family. The woman, who prosecutors refused to identify, lost her 8-year-old son in a motorcycle accident and was allegedly exploited by at least one of the defendants, Rose Marks, who she considered a friend.

"She was under, for want of a better word, the curse of Rose Marks," Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurence Bardfeld told the judge at the hearing in federal court in West Palm Beach. The fortune teller reportedly told the author that her son was "somewhere between heaven and hell."

Several sources with knowledge of the case said the victim is Jude Deveraux, author of 37 New York Times bestsellers that include romances and tales of the paranormal. Deveraux's real name is Jude Gilliam Montassir.

On her MySpace page, she wrote that she "adopted a son, Sam Alexander Montassir … My son died at age 8 in a motorcycle accident. It was a horrible accident I will never forget in my life. After it happened my books became more about family instead of romance."

Attempts to reach Deveraux, 63, at phone numbers listed for her residences in and outside Florida were unsuccessful Friday evening.

Rose Marks' attorney, Fred Schwartz, said in court she had collaborated with the author, who he did not name, on books about gypsy culture.

Other purported victims of the psychics included a woman with a brain tumor who was told she would receive "positive energy" but is now out of work and in danger of losing her apartment; a person from Japan who gave them $496,000; and a man from Denmark who sent about $186,000 he thought was going to charity work.

While some may scoff that people gave cash, gold coins, jewelry and other valuables to the fortune tellers, Bardfeld told the judge the victims were going through very vulnerable phases of their lives.

"If you understood the severity of what these victims were going through, it makes more sense," Bardfeld said. They were told that if they didn't follow the psychics' advice, terrible things would happen to them or the people they cared about, he said. Many were assured their money or property would be returned to them when the fortune tellers' work was done, but those promises were broken, the prosecutor said.

Among those arrested Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale were Rose Marks, 60, who uses the name Joyce Michael; Cynthia Miller, 33, Rosie Marks, 36; Vivian Marks, 21; Michael Marks, 33; and Donnie Eli, 38. Arrested in New York were Nancy Marks, 42, and her husband Ricky Marks, 39.

Most of those charged are members of the Marks family, a so-called Romanian gypsy clan whose members were born and grew up in the United States. None have known criminal records.

The businesses include Astrology by Nancy, run out of a home in Fort Lauderdale's Coral Ridge neighborhood; Astrology Life, at 2000 E. Sunrise Blvd.; Joyce Michaels Consulting at 1130 S. Federal Hwy.; as well as a Davie psychic shop at 4252 Davie Road Extension.

Federal agents who arrested the eight people who are in custody so far told prosecutors they had never seen anything like the amount of top-end jewelry, fancy cars and gold coins seized from the main family home on Seminole Drive in Fort Lauderdale and safe deposit boxes.

More than 400 rings, many with large diamonds, at least 100 watches and 200 necklaces were seized and may be subject to forfeiture by the government if the defendants are convicted. Detectives said many of the items were from Cartier, Tiffany & Co. and Gucci.

Recently retired Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Charles Stack, who worked the case with the U.S. Secret Service, testified Friday that the case began in March 2007 with a complaint from a victim who lost $3,000.

"From the people I've interviewed so far, I've found nobody pleased with their services," Stack testified. He said he had spoken with about 17 people who claimed to have been ripped off at the family's businesses in Broward County and near the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Norm Kent, who represents Michael Marks, said the family was being wrongly portrayed and had provided counseling and hours of support to people who were suffering anxiety attacks, considering suicide or had nowhere else to turn. "I don't know when fortune telling became a federal crime," Kent told the judge. He said the family had set up legitimate businesses, licensed with the state of Florida and operated with the knowledge of city authorities.

Bardfeld, the prosecutor, said family members committed federal offenses when they conspired together and promised victims they would not spend the money, then refused to return it. They also committed wire fraud, he said.

In the course of the investigation, some clients agreed to record conversations with the family members, at least one agent went undercover and pretended to be a customer and, when officers legally picked through the family's garbage, they found discarded jewelry boxes from high-end stores.

After a more than four-hour hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Hopkins decided the six family members in court Friday would be held without bond as flight risks and potential dangers to the community.

As the judge issued his ruling, three of the women began to sob and wail. The defense attorneys vowed to appeal, saying the family is concerned that their young children would be taken into state protective care because practically the whole family locally is in federal custody. They have not formally entered pleas but the lawyers indicated they plan to fight the charges.

If convicted, Rose Marks, who moved to Fort Lauderdale 13 years ago from Virginia, could face as much as 27 years in prison, prosecutors said. The other alleged leaders, Nancy Marks and Cynthia Miller, could receive 14 or more years in prison if found guilty.

Staff Writer Sofia Santana and Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

Stone Effigy of Na'pi Discovered in Alberta

Excerpted from Heritage Key
Ancient Stone Monument to Napi Discovered on Canadian Prairies
Submitted by owenjarus on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 22:41

A stone effigy monument, in the shape of a Blackfoot creator god named Napi, has been discovered in southern Alberta – south of the Red Deer River near the hamlet of Finnegan.

One day Old Man determined that he would make a woman and a child; so he formed them both – the woman and the child, her son – of clay. After he had moulded the clay in human shape, he said to the clay, "You must be people” ...


They walked down to the river with their Maker, and then he told them that his name was Na'pi, - Old Man.

-From Blackfoot Lodge Tales, George Grinnell, 1892

Blackfoot stories mention effigies like this. In 1892 anthropologist George Grinnell published a story about Napi, that he - Made the Milk River (the Teton) and crossed it, and, being tired, went up on a little hill and lay down to rest. As he lay on his back, stretched out on the ground, with arms extended, he marked himself out with stones,--the shape of his body, head, legs, arms, and everything. There you can see those rocks today.

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Some great diagrams and photos of several Na'pi stone effigies from Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, in a book by Liz Bryan, Stone by Stone: Exploring Ancient Sites on the Canadian Plains.  I understand there is a way to copy the images if I download certain software, but I haven't gotten around to doing that so if you would like to see some very interesting images, please click on the link. 

I'm not sure I "see" the figure of a man in the diagram provided in the Heritage Key article - can't find the head, for instance, but after comparing this figure to those provided in the Google excerpt from Liz Bryan's book, I can "see" the legs and the very large phallis between then, which has to be supposed is only fitting for a creator/father god.

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What struck a chord with me was the name "Old Man."  I wonder if this is perhaps a similar figure to the "Kamak" (or Grandfather) in the following story -- you will see why I'm wondering when you read the story!

18. The Kamak and his Wife. 1
Some people lived in a certain place. One day a kamak and his wife looked down (through the entrance-hole). They said, "Halloo! have you not some blubber?"--"There is some in the cache." They entered the cache, and began to eat blubber. Then they sang, "It tastes well. We are eating blubber." 2 The next morning it was the same. "Halloo! have you not some blubber?"--"There is some in the porch."--"It tastes well. We are eating blubber; but when you have no more blubber, [to-morrow] we shall eat you."

They fled upwards in the night-time. They threw an arrow (upwards), and it became a road. They fled along this road.

Those came again. "Halloo! have you not some blubber?" But there was no answer. "Let us jump in! They are hidden somewhere." They entered, and searched in all the corners. There was nothing.

They said, "Let us try the divining-stone!" 3 (The kamak-woman) made (her husband) stand with his legs apart. She used his penis as a divining-stone. "If they have fled to the morning dawn, we shall follow them. If they have fled to the sunset, we shall follow them. To the seaside also we shall follow them. If they have fled upwards, what then? God would not treat us very pleasantly. How can we follow them?"

He began to sway his penis. "Shall we go out through the same opening without any fear. 4 Let us go out through the vent-hole in the roof of the porch!" The kamak-woman said, "Take me on your shoulders!" He took her on his back. "Oh, you are strangling me!" (His head) thrust itself into her anus. "Oh, you are playing mischief!"

Finally they both died, and lay there. His head slipped into her anus [again?]  After a while (the fugitives) said, "Let us visit the house!" They visited it, and dragged out his head with an iron hook, and his head had become (quite) hairless.

"Oh, oh?" They threw them into the direction of the sunset. Then they lived and were happy. They were not (molested) by spirits. That is all.

Notes:

1. Compare Jochelson, The Koryak, l. c., No. 105, p. 293.

2. Compare p. 68, footnote 3.

3. Literally "let us act with the grandmother". The word "grandmother" is used also for "divining-stone" (Cf. W. Jochelson, The Koryak, l. c., p. 44). p. 81 The reason is probably that divination with stones is chiefly practised by women, and that the divining-stone, though usually a round pebble or a piece of bone ornamented with beads and tassels, represents a female guardian of the family.

4. Literally, "without shame". "Shame" for "fear" is used also in the Chukchee (Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. viii, No. 10, p. 61 footnote 1.

[From KORYAK TEXTS, by Waldemar Bogoras, Publications of the American Ethnological Society, Volume V, edited by Frank Boaz, E. J. Brill, Limited, Publishers and Printers, Leyden, G. E. Stechert & Co., New York, Agents, 1917.]

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 The reason I remember the story is because of the use of the "feathered stone" for divination.  In the story, the Kamak's penis substituted for the stone hung from a string.  That the word "grandmother" was also synonymous with "divining-stone" may perhaps hark back to the days before peoples of northwest Russia crossed over to the New World, when females were often shamans. 

Is Na'pi the same god as the trickster/spirit Kamak in the Koryak tale, or are they perhaps related?  Na'pi is "Old Man;" Kamak is "Grandfather" - and "Grandfather" can be another term for "Old Man." 

The use of objects suspended from a string to "divine" something is still used today, right here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!  You can file this away under what are popularly called "Old Wive's Tales" - hmmm....

It is not at all unusual at a baby shower to suspend a short pencil hung from a string above the expectant mother's baby bump and watch it swing to and fro, back and forth, and sometimes round and round.  The person who holds the string must make sure she is perfectly still, and some people watch her intently to make sure she is not somehow manipulating the motion of the pencil on the string.  If the string moves in a certain way, the prediction is that the child will be a boy; if the string moves in a different way, the prediction is that the child will be a girl.  In our family, my immediate female relatives have about a 90% accuracy rate!  I'm often the one holding the pencil on the string.  But I can never remember if back and forth means boy and circular means girl - or if it is the opposite!  Shaman I am - NOT. 

We have another baby shower coming up - I'm going to be a great-aunty again - I've lost count, egoddess! So I may be called upon once again to try my hand (ahem) at divining the sex of my next great-niece or great-nephew. 

Large Exhibition of Taosi Site Objects in Beijing

"Gear-wheel shaped bronze wear
(01 M11:2)
Middle to late period Taosi culture (c. 2100 BC - 1900 BC)
Unearthed from Taosi site, Xiangfen, Shanxi province

This ware was found with a jade bi piling up on the small tomb owner's arm.  The 29 teeth of the ware drew experts' attention that some guessed it might be related to the cycle of dates of month.  Others also think that it may be a bracelet."

Some bracelet!  The translation to English leaves much to be desired.  Was the object actually found AROUND the wrist or arm of the tomb owner?  Was it laying ON TOP OF the arm of the tomb owner?  A bi, as I understand it, is meant to be worn around the neck, suspended from a silk or leather cord. Perhaps this piece was meant to be worn similarly?  Or perhaps it's not a piece of jewelry at all but is something else entirely -- a piece of something that was used to tell time in some way, perhaps?  The 29 "cogs" that appear to be evenly spaced around the outer rim of the circle are highly suggestive of a lunar month, for instance.

Or perhaps it was used for divination somehow, in conjunction with other pieces of equipment that disintegrated over the thousands of years of burial?  For that matter, would not a cord of silk or leather also have disintegrated away after 3000 plus years? 

This object is one of many currently on exhibit at the Capital Museum in Beijing:

China's biggest ever archaeological exhibition is held at the Capital Museum in Beijing on Thursday, July 29, 2010.
"The archaeological finds of the Taosi Site in Xiangfen County of Shanxi Province rewrite history and prove that the beginning of Chinese civilization should be at least 4200 years ago, not 3700 years ago as previously suggested." an expert said during the opening ceremony of China's biggest ever archaeological exhibition in Beijing on Thursday.

The exhibition of over 400 cultural relics, held in the Capital Museum from July 29 to October 10, includes more than one hundred of the earliest archeological finds in China, such as cultivated rice from 10,000 years ago, panicum from 8000 years ago and an ancestor of domestic pigs. Over 70% of the cultural relics are open to the public for the first time.

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I'm not saying there is any relationship - but the number 29 reminded me of the very old game of Yut or Nyout, which also involves 29 "points" arranged either in a circle or in a square. Here is an example of a Yut or Nyout arrangement. (R.C. Bell, "Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations.")  It is still played in Korea although the origins of the game have been lost in the mists of time and it is supposed that most people no longer really understand the significance of the fact that, for instance, each "point" has its own name. Some people think that the outer rim in Yut/Nyout represents "Heaven" and the inner portion (the 'cross,' around which a square can be drawn) represents "Earth." In the very old old days, long before China was China, this concept of Heaven/Earth was represented by a circle ("Heaven") superimposed over a flat, square plane ("Earth").

I believe the tradition has evolved to Nyout mostly being played on Korean New Year's Day, when one's "fortune" can be told by playing the game -- I have yet to come across an article that explains just how this is done, though. According to Stewart Culin, Nyout was one of several games that embodied a method of divination in which several two faced staves are tossed and numerical counts attributed to their various falls. [T]he game of Nyout is a striking and typical example. In Nyout, as in many similar games of the same order, direction or place is determined by counting around a diagram which may be regarded as representing the world and its quarter.

I suppose, therefore, that in order to determine one's fortune, one would throw the sticks to get a count and move a piece onto the "board", and this process would be repeated several times, depending on how many pieces one had to "play." The final result would be "read," i.e., interpreted, based upon which "points" the playing pieces landed on the "board."

The interpretation might get a lot more complicated, though, if more than one person was placing pieces on the "board", perhaps taking turns tossing the sticks to get a count. For instance, if another person's piece landed on your same point - what would happen? Would you have to start over? Would you incur a penalty of some kind (go back five spaces, move to "x" space), perhaps even "death?"

An alternative explanation to divining one's fortune by playing Nyout (or perhaps any similar game, because the roots of all circle and cross games may stem from a single origin) as proposed by Culin is discussed at Board Game Geek:

"Regarding the game of Nyout, Culin writes about how the game can be related to the I Ching. During a special holiday time of the year in Korea, Nyout is played and a special book is used called the zhìchéngfǎ (掷成法-"Toss-win-way"). He also includes an exerpt from the book titled zhìsìzhān (掷柶占-"Toss-spoon-divine"). He makes a connection between this book and the I Ching in that there are 64 possible combinations that can result from the throw of the Nyout blocks and that there are 64 possible forturnes that may result."


While short blocks, pam-nyout, are used by children, and gamblers in cities, in the country, long blocks, called tiyang-tjak-nyout (Chinese, cheung cheuk sz' (長斫柶-cháng zhuó sì-"Long Chop Spoon")) or "long-cut nyout" are emplyed. . . . It is customary in Korea to use the long blocks at the 15th of the first month for the purpose of divination. Early in this month a small book is sold in the markets of Seoul to be used in connection with the blocks. The players throw the sticks three times, noting the number that is counted for the throw at each fall. The series of three numbers is then referred to the book, upon the several pages of which are printed in Chinese characters all the various permutations of the numbers, taken three at a time, Korean text explanatory of their significance. . . . The Chinese Book of Divination consists of 64 diagrams, Kwa (卦-guà-diviniatory trigrams), composed of combinations of unbroken ------- with broken lines --- ---, six being taken at a time, and the resulting diagrams being known as the Sixty-four Kwa (卦). Each of these 64 hexagrams is designated by a name and is accompanied by a short explanatory text. Now the Sixty-four Hexagrams are regarded as an expansion of the Eight Trigrams, called the Pat Kwa (八卦-bāguà-eight trigrams), or "Eight Kwa (卦)," formed by combining the same unbroken and broken lines three at a time. The unbroken lines in the diagrams are called yeung (陰-yīn), "masculine," and the broken lines, yam (陽-yáng), "feminine." It is apparent that if the two sides of the Korean blocks be regarded as representing the unbroken, or masculine, lines and the broken, or feminine, lines, the trigrams will form a record of the throws when three blocks are used, and the hexagrams when six blocks are taken. This I believe to have been their original purpose. I regard the diagrams as records of possible throws with two-faced staves, and the text that accompanies the hexagrams in the Yih King, (易经-yìjīng-The Book of Changes) to be explanatory . . . The Korean game of Nyout may be regarded as the antetype of a large number of games which exist throughout the world. Thus the diagram of the Hindu game known as Pachisi, or Chausar . . . will be seen to be an expansion of the Nyout circuit with its internal cross.


From "Games of the Orient" (AKA Korean Games) by Stewart Culin (pg 70-74)

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So, this means that if there was no longer anyone who understood the 'rules' to enable the book to be published each year that interpreted the positions where one's pieces ended up on the Nyout board -- and here I am assuming that the book would be customized depending upon the position of the stars, for instance, or related to the greater zodiacal positions -- one would no longer be able to tell one's fortune using that particular method. 

But both the point-marked Nyout board shown above and the standardized trigrams of the I Ching (which have established meanings) could still be used to provide a fortune reading. In the former method, a marked board would be necessary and one's pieces would have to be placed on the board according to one's throws of the sticks; in the latter, all that would be necessary would be to record the way the sticks landed a certain number of times in order to construct the trigrams.  Interpretation would then flow from the trigrams. 

Of course, this supposes that the meanings of the points on the Nyout board and the meanings of the trigrams recorded in the I Ching will never be lost.  Unfortunately, we know from history that such knowledge can be and has been lost with respect to other board games and divinatory practices, and once lost, can often never be reconstructed.

Western Zhou Dynasty Tortoise Shell

The early peoples in China used certain types of animal bones as well as tortoise shells for divination.  As far as I known, the practice had it roots during the Shang Dynasty.  The area generally associated with the Shang in modern-day China is depicted in the map to the right.

A chronology from about.com:

The Bronze Age Shang Dynasty in China is roughly dated between 1700-1050 BC, and, according to the Shi Ji, it began when the first Shang emperor, T'ang, overthrew the last of the Xia (also called Erlitou) dynasty emperors. They in turn were overthrown by the first rulers of the Zhou Dynasty, in 1046 BC.

Shang Dynasty Chronology

•Erlitou (or Xia dynasty) 1850-1600 BC (Erlitou, Xinzhai)

•Early Shang (Erligang) 1600-1435 BC (Erligang, Zhengzhou, Yanshi, Xingyang Dashigu, Anyang)•Middle Shang 1435-1220 BC (Yanshi)

•Late Shang (Yinxu) 1220-1050 BC

Archaeological evidence for the Shang Dynasty suggests that the story is far more complex and that the use of the term 'Shang dynasty' or 'Shang civilization' is confusing, and 'Shang period' might be of more use. Settlement patterns of the Shang period include dispersed villages like Taixi, walled settlements like Gucheng and Zhengzhou, and ritual or ceremonial centers like Erlitou and Anyang.

Important advances of the Shang Dynasty are the creation of writing, on oracle bones, bones and turtle shells used to record dreams and public and private events and sacrifices. Ritual bronzes were first created at Erlitou, which may or may not represent the early part of the Shang Dynasty, depending on which scholar you listen to.

As you can see from this map of the area of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the area in China is basically the same.  Information from paulnoll.com:

Western Zhou Dynasty Map - (1100 to 771 BC - 331 Years)

A chieftain of a frontier tribe called Zhou, which had settled in the Wei Valley in modern Sha'anxi Province, overthrew the last Shang ruler, a despot according to standard Chinese accounts. The Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other, from 1027 to 221 BC (807 years). It was philosophers of this period who first enunciated the doctrine of the "mandate of heaven," the notion that the ruler (the "son of heaven") governed by divine right but his dethronement would mean that he had lost his mandate. This doctrine explained and justified the demise of the two earlier dynasties and at the same time supported the legitimacy of the present and future rulers. In 771 BC, the Zhou court was sacked, and its king killed by invading barbarians who were allied with rebel lords. The capital was moved eastward to Luoyang. Because of this shift, historians divide the Zhou era into Western Zhou (1027 to 771 BC) and Eastern Zhou (770 to 221 BC). With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished; the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. Eastern Zhou divides into two sub periods. The first, from 770 to 476 BC, is called the Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical chronicle of the time; the second is known as the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC).
Article from National Geographic News:

Ancient Psychic Shell?
Published June 15, 2010
Photograph from Imagechina/AP

A broken tortoise shell found at the Luoyang excavation site was likely used for psychic practices thousands of years ago.

Not much is known about tortoise-shell divination during the Western Zhou period, Sena said, but during the preceding Shang dynasty, the process involved heating the shell and interpreting the cracks that formed.

"Holes are bored in the back of the shell to make it easier to crack during the divination process," Sena explained.

"Someone then 'reads' the cracks. We don't know how exactly—it may be the shape of the crack or the sound it makes when it's heated," he added.

"The diviner would ask a question and the crack provided an answer."

Lebanese "Sorcerer" Convicted of Witchcraft Faces Death Sentence

Unfortunately, this isn't an April Fools' joke although the story was published on April 1, 2010.  I posted about this man's arrest earlier but right now I cannot find it so no link to the earlier story is provided.  Sorry.

Lawyer: Saudi could behead Lebanese for witchcraft
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 1, 11:02 am ET
BEIRUT – The lawyer of a Lebanese TV psychic who was convicted in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft said Thursday her client could be beheaded this week and urged Lebanese and Saudi leaders to help spare his life.

Attorney May al-Khansa said she learned from a judicial source that Ali Sibat is to be beheaded on Friday. She added that she does not have any official confirmation of this. Saudi judicial officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

A Lebanese official said Beirut has received no word from its embassy in Riyadh about Sibat's possible execution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The Saudi justice system, which is based on Islamic law, does not clearly define the charge of witchcraft.

Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling. These practices are considered polytheism by the government in Saudi Arabia, a deeply religious Muslim country.

Later Thursday, a dozen people demonstrated near the Saudi embassy in Beirut's western neighborhood of Qureitim. Four of the men wore masks to look like executioners and carried a wooden gallows with a cloth bag hanging from it.

One of the men carried a small banner that read in Arabic: "Don't kill."

Al-Khansa said she has called upon Saudi King Abdullah to pardon Sibat, a 49-year-old father of five. She also says she is in contact with Lebanese officials about the case.

She added that Sibat did not make predictions in Saudi Arabia and was neither a Saudi citizen nor a resident in Saudi and therefore should have been deported rather than tried there.

Sibat made predictions on an Arab satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut. He was arrested by the Saudi religious police during his pilgrimage to the holy city of Medina in May 2008 and sentenced to death last November.

"Ali is not a criminal. He did not commit a crime or do anything disgraceful, " al-Khansa said. "The world should help in rescuing a man who has five children, a wife and a seriously ill mother."

She added that Sibat's mother's health has been deteriorating since her son was sentenced to death.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said last year that Sibat's death sentence should be overturned. It also called on the Saudi government to halt "its increasing use of charges of 'witchcraft,' crimes that are vaguely defined and arbitrarily used."

Last year, the rights group presented a series of cases in the kingdom, including that of Saudi woman Fawza Falih, who was sentenced to death by beheading in 2006 for the alleged crimes of "witchcraft, recourse to jinn (supernatural beings)" and animal sacrifice.

On November 2, 2007, Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian pharmacist, was executed for sorcery in the Saudi capital of Riyadh after he was found guilty of having tried "through sorcery" to separate a married couple, Human Rights Watch said.

China's 'Founding Legend' May Not Be True

(Well, when it comes right down to it, how many 'founding legends' are actually true???) (Image: a Liubo diagram -- used for the ancient Chinese board game and also divination. Which came first - the game or the divination??? Physical evidence of divination in ancient China dates back to several thousand years ago, in the form of oracle bones, but who knows what sketches may have been made and erased in the dirt for thousands of years beforehand?) Article from USA Today.com (Science Fair) China's founding legend may not be true (I believe this was posted about August 21, 2009, but I could not find a date) China's founding dynasty may just be a myth, say archaeologists. In a news report in the current Science, writer Andrew Lawler surveys a decade's worth of discoveries suggesting ancient China sprang from distinct regions, rather than possessing a single national culture some 4,300 years ago. "How China became China is no mere academic topic; it goes to the very heart of how the world’s most populous and economically vibrant nation sees itself and its role in the world," Lawler writes. Since 2004, archeologists headed by Wang Wei of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing have begun tying together a broader picture of China's origins. “Most of us accepted that the Yellow River was the origin of Chinese civilization. But as we’ve done more research, we have found other cultural areas," Wei tells Science. In particular, the Xia dynasty -- written about as the founder of the Chinese state by Confucius around 600 B.C. -- seems suspect. In 1959, Chinese archaeologist reported the discovery of the capital city of Xia, dating from 2100 B.C. to 1600 B.C., but modern excavations and more recent dating, "challenge its status," writes Lawler. "Although not even half-complete, the project to define the origins of Chinese civilization has already laid to rest the notion of an imperial China rising from the central plains of the Yellow River to bestow its gifts on backward hinterlands." By Dan Vergano Well, we shall see what develops. I do not think that "founding" myths should be discarded wholesale. I believe they often hold valuable kernels of truth that can be developed into new present knowledge. One thing we know - what we knew 100 years ago isn't necessarily true today, given scientific advances in dating techniques, for instance, and new paradigms in thinking that did not exist back then. The same holds true for 100 years from now...

Delphi

(Image: From Nigel Pennick, "Secret Games of the Gods," Pythia, c. 400 BCE. Notice the 3x3 checkered board motif in the border, that dates back to at least 6,000 BCE in the lands around the Mediterranean. The "roof" of the embrasure where the Pythia is installed is also checked, perhaps replicating the older checkerboard-patterned palenques for deceased kings and special warriors used in archaic Greece and, even earlier, the checkered ceilings of the enclosures holding the mummies of ancient pharaohs. Notice also the eight-pointed "rosette" on the side of the Pythia's stool, which I assume is matched by another on the other side. The 8-point rosette is long associated with the goddess Inanna, who travelled to the Land of No Return and entered the underworld to retrieve her deceased lover/son, and successfully returned. The Pythia holds a shallow bowl or dish in her left hand and an oracle branch in her right hand. The holding of the dish or bowl in her left hand is significant. In "Christian" times, left-handed people, particularly females who were left-handed, were often persecuted and/or killed as "witches.") A selection from Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends." Delphi "Womb"; Greece's oldest, most famous oracle, where Mother Earth was worshipped under the name of Delphyne, the Womb of Creation, along with her serpent-son and consort Python.(1) At various times the oracle was said to belong to the Sea-goddess, or the Moon-goddess, various designations of the same primal Mother, whoses priestess-daughters, the Pythonesses, controlled the rites. Eventually the patriarchal god Apollo took it over, retaining the Pythonesses, but claiming to have placed the serpent in his underground uterine cave, whence came the oracle's inspiration. Apollo murdered the priestess Delphyne, and held the oracle until it was closed by the Christian emperor Thedosius. After him, Arcadius had the temple entirely destroyed. Notes: (1) Graves, G.M., 1, 80.

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Compare to this information from Wikipedia entry on Delphi: The name Delphois starts with the same four letters as δελφύς delphus, "womb" and may indicate archaic veneration of Gaia, Grandmother Earth, and the Earth Goddess at the site.[4][5] Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet Δελφίνιος Delphinios, "the Delphinian." The epithet is connected with dolphins (Greek δελφίς,-ῖνος) in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (line 400), recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on his back. The Homeric name of the oracle is Pytho (Πυθώ).[6] Notes 4, 5 and 6 (referenced above): (4) Fontenrose, Joseph, The Delphic Oracle: Its Responses and Operations, with a Catalogue of Responses (1978). pp.3-4. "Such was its prestige that most Hellenes after 500 B.C. placed its foundation in the earliest days of the world: before Apollo took possession, they said, Ge (Earth) [Gaia] and her daughter Themis had spoken oracles at Pytho. Such has been the strength of the tradition that many historians and others have accepted as historical fact the ancient statement that Ge and Themis spoke oracles before it became Apollo's establishment. Yet nothing but the myth supports this statement. In the earliest account that we have of the Delphic Oracle's beginnings, the story found in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (281-374), there was no Oracle before Apollo came and killed the great she-dragon, Pytho's only inhabitant. This was apparently the Delphic myth of the sixth century". (5) Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek States, v.III, pp.8-10, onwards. "The earth is the abode of the dead, therefore the earth-deity has power over the ghostly world: the shapes of dreams, which often foreshadowed the future, were supposed to ascend from the world below, therefore the earth-deity might acquire an oracular function, especially through the process of incubation, in which the consultant slept in a holy shrine with his ear upon the ground. That such conceptions attached to Gaia is shown by the records of her cults at Delphi, Athens, and Aegae. A recently discovered inscription speaks of a temple of Ge [Gaia] at Delphi. ... As regards Gaia, we also can accept it. It is confirmed by certain features in the latter Delphic divination, and also by the story of the Python." (6) Odyssey, VIII, 80 The legend about Apollo assuming the shape of a dolphin carrying Cretan priests on his back is a classic gloss of patriarchal take-over of a goddess shrine - blatant, actually! I don't think I've read a clearer example of this type of masculine glossing over of older matriarchal and/or goddess-oriented myths. Foreign invaders brought their alien war-gods with them, and took over what was there before. Sadly, a story oft-told throughout history. Today we call it propaganda.

Goddess Mari (known by many names)

From Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets." Mari Basic name of the Goddess known to the Chaldeans as Marratu, to the Jews as Marah, to the Persians as Mariham, to the Christians as Mary; as well as Marian, Miriam, Mariamne, Myrrhine, Myrtea, Myrrha, Maria, and Marina. Her blue robe and pearl necklace wre classic symbols of the sea, edged with pearly foam.(1) Many place names evolved from Marian shrines. Among them were Amari or Ay-Mari, the Cyrprian home of Aphrodite Marina; Marib, City of the Moon, seat of the queens of Sheba; Marea in western Egypt; Maronea near Lake Ismaris; Maru, mother-city of the Medes; Sa-Maria, a country whose name meant literally "holy blood of Mary." (2) One of the entrances to her underworld womb, a sacred cave accessible only by sea, was Mar-Mari, "Mother Sea."(3) The Goddess's Amorite city of Mari was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Its six-acre temple-palace astonished archeologists who uncovered i in the 1930s. Mari dominated the area now known as the Holy Land until it fell to the armies of Hammurabi in 1700 B.C.(4) Semites worshipped an adrogynous combination of Goddess and God called Mari-El [biblical Mariel] (Mary-God) corresponding to the Egyptian Meri-Ra which combined the feminine principle of water with the masculine principle of the sun.(5) Sometimes the deity was named simply Mere, an Egyptian word for both "waers" and "mother-love."(6) Mer was also a component of the names of Egyptian queens in the first dynasty. One of Egypt's oldest names was Ta-Mera, Land of the Waters, which could also be interpreted as Land of the Great Mothers.(7) The Syrian version of Mari or Meri was worshipped in combination with her serpent-consort Yamm, derived from Yama, the Hindu Lord of Death. Yamm alternated with Baal, "the Lord," as the Goddess' favorite and a sovereign over heaven and the abyss. Indian Yama was one of the consorts of Kel-Mari, as Kali was called in the south.(8) Tantric Buddhists still speak of the "Slayer of the Death King," Yama-Mari, who was identified with the Dalai Lama.(9) [The Dalai Lama is currently in the news because of the riots in Tibet and environs peopled by ethnic Tibetans in China, and the brutal Chinese suppression of the "unrest."] Jews and early Christians used the smae combinatin of names, Mari-Yamm or Mariam, for the mother of Jesus.(1) The spirit of the archaic Mari entered into Bablonian diviners known as mare baruti, sea-mothers, who operated in the bit mummu or womb-chamber, where statues of the gods were said to be "born" (made animate).(11) In similar womb-chambers the Hindu goddess was worshipped as Kau-Mari or Kel-Mari.(12) She is still invoked as Marici-Tara, the Diamond Sow on the lotus Throne, "Glorious One, the sun of happiness." She is the Goddess "whose mayik vesture is the sun," forerunner of the Gospels' "woman clothed with the sun' (Revelation 12:1), who was identified with the virgin Mary.(13) Northern Europe knew the same Goddess as Maerin, wedded to Thor at her shrine in Trondheim.(14) To the Saxons she was Wudo-Maer: literally, a Wood-Mary, or Goddess of the Grove. To the Celts she was Maid Marian, beloved by Robin, the witches' Horned God. Their greenwood cult caused church authorities considerable trouble in the 14th century.(15) Mari was the same Merian or Merjan worshipped in Persia as Queen of the Peris (Fairies).(16) Iran had its mother goddess Mariana from very ancient times.(17) She might be traced to the land of Akkad, created by a Goddess called the Lady Marri, Mother of the World.(18) A king of Mari in 2500 B.C., united with the Goddess, took the royal name of Lamki-Mari.(19) She was also the Great Fish who gave birth to the gods, later the Mermaid, Mare-mynd, mareminde, marraminde, maraeman, or mereminne.(20) [Also the "Great Fish" that symbolically swallowed Jonah in the biblical account, where he stayed for parts of 3 days and nights, just as Christ spent parts of 3 days and nights in Hell talking with the lost souls after his death]. In short, she was always Mother Sea. Her Latin name was Maria, "the Seas." ["Mare" - "sea of" - was used extensively in naming various sections of the Moon, a rather appropriate usage, I must say.] St. Peter Chrysologus [Peter Golden-word, 5th century bishop of Revenna, friend of Pope Leo the Great] called her Christian incarnation, the virgin Mary, "the gathering together of the waters."(21) But she was also the earth ahd heavens, since her earliest form was a trinity. She was worshipped in pre-Roman Latium as Marica, mother of the first king Latinus, who was also her priapic goat-footed consort Faunus. She was probably the same Goddess worshipped by the Slavs under the name of Marzanna (Mari-Anna), who "fostered the growth of fruits."(22) Mari and her pagan consort were incongruously canonized as a pair of Christian saints, Addai and Mari (Adonis and Aphrodite-Mari). Their legends called them "bishops" dispatched to Aphrodite's cult center at Edessa, probably because their portraits appered there, and it was easier to Christianize them than to destroy them. Their cult began with Nestorian Christians who called them "Holy Apostles Addai and Mari."(23) Another Christianization was St. Maura, from the Goddesses' Fate-name Moera, "older than Time."(24) As the Fate-spinner who held men's denstines in her hand, she generated a taboo: on St. Maura's day, women were forbidden to spin or sew.(25) [My guess is that Moera, Fate-spinner, is a direct link to the old proto-Indo-European and later Hindu belief about an astral Spider spinning out the creation of the Universe and its fate. I believe this concept is directly related to the "ashtapada" (eight limbs) game board on which some say proto-chess was first invented]. Medieval Spain knew the Goddess Mari as a "Lady" or "Mistress" who lived in a magic cave and rode through the night sky as a ball of fire.(26) This may have meant the red harvest moon, or possibly the moon in eclipse - always a dire omen. [Or possibly literal balls of fire - meteors, or the more mysterious "light balls" that appear hovering above the horizon, similar to but not satisfactorily explained as "St. Elmo's Fire."] The Goddess Mari was said to give gifts of fairy gold and precious stones, which might turn into worthless lumps of coal by the light of day.(27) In later centuries, the same worthless gifts were given to "bad" children by St. Nicholas at Christmas. The island of Inis Maree had a ruined temple, sacred to a certain "St. Mourie" - none other than the Goddess Mari for whom the island was named. In 1678 the Presbytery of Dingwall "disciplined" some people who sacrificed bulls to the divinity of Loch Maree on the 25th of August, a day dedicated to Aphrodite-Mari for more than 1500 years.(28). Notes: (1) Graves, W.G., 438. (2) Graves, W.G., 410-11; Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 179; Herodotus, 41, 400. (3) Hughes, 159. (4) Keller, 46-49. (5) Budge, G.E., 1, 86; Book of the Dead, 602. (6) Budge, E.L., 76. (7) Budge, D.N. 160. (8) Briffault, 1, 474. (9) Waddell, 364. (10) Ashe, 48. (11) Lindsay, O.A., 41. (12) Mahanirvanatantra, 149. (13) Waddell, 218, 361; Mahanirvanatantra, x1. (14) Turville-Petre, 91. (15) Graves, W.G., 441. (16) Keightley, 22. (17) Thomson, 135. (18) Assyr. & Bab. Lit., 287. (19) Albright, 98. (20) Steenstrup, 105. (21) Ashe, 147. (22) Larousee, 208, 291. (23) Attwater, 31. (24) Bachofen, 57. (25) Lawson, 175. (26) Lederer, 210. (27) Baorja, 238. (28) Spence, 37.

Was the Stanway Board Game Used in Divination?

The board game excavated in a Roman era grave near Colchester in England first broke into the news in 1996. It's back in the news again, with this report at the Discovery Channel:

Druid Grave Unearthed in U.K.?
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Feb. 11, 2008 -- Historical records tell of a mystical, priestly and learned class of elite individuals called Druids among Celtic societies in Britain, but there has been no archaeological evidence of their existence. Until, perhaps, now.

A series of graves found in a gravel quarry at Stanway near Colchester, Essex, have been dated to 40-60 A.D. At least one of the burials, it appears, may have been that of a Druid, according to a report published in British Archaeology.

Mike Pitts is the journal's editor and an archaeologist. He studied classical Greek and Roman texts that mention the Druids in early France and Britain. The most detailed description, Pitts found, dates to 55 B.C. and comes from Roman military and political leader Julius Caesar.

"Druids, he says, were prestigious ritual specialists who performed human sacrifices, acted as judges in disputes, were excused action in battle and taught the transmigration of souls -- when you die, your soul is passed on to another living being," Pitts told Discovery News.

Other historians link the Druids to soothsaying and healing practices.

Within the wooden, chambered burial site, researchers have excavated a wine warmer, cremated human remains, a cloak pinned with brooches, a jet bead, divining rods (for fortune-telling), a series of surgical instruments, a strainer bowl last used to brew Artemisia-containing tea, a board game carefully laid out with pieces in play, as well as other objects.

"This person was clearly a specialist and also clearly wealthy and powerful, as indicated by the special grave and its apparent location within the compound of a 'chief.' That would all fit Caesar's Druid," he said, adding that Caesar likely also visited Stanway during his lifetime.

The surgical kit found in the grave includes iron and copper alloy scalpels, a surgical saw, hooks, needles, forceps and probes. Pitts said the collection mirrors basic medical tools from other parts of the Roman world.

The board game and its arranged pieces, however, are anything but common. None other like it has ever been found at Roman-era sites in Great Britain.

Surviving metal corners and hinges from the board allowed Pitts to reconstruct it as an 8-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Raised sides suggest dice might have been used. The white and blue glass counters were positioned with care. Some were straight across the sides, another in a diagonal line and one white marker close to the board's center.

Pitts believes the game may have been another "divination tool," along with the rods, jet bead and scent bottles also excavated at Stanway.

Philip Crummy, director of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, told Discovery News that the person in the burial could very well have been a Druid "given the healing and divination attributes -- assuming that Druids could be trained in these skills."

Crummy agrees with Pitts that such individuals would have been "near the top of the social scale in Iron Age Britain."

He is, however, not yet convinced the person was Celtic, since the medical kit was "fairly Romanized" and the individual may have acted "like a Roman surgeon/doctor would have done."

"Divination was widely practiced in the Roman world too," he added.

Because of site's age and location, Pitts is more inclined to believe the person was indeed a Celtic Druid and could have been closely related to Cunobelin, a chief or king of the Catuvellauni tribe.

William Shakespeare immortalized Cunobelin as "Cymbeline" in a play of that same name. Cunobelin's sons led a heroic, yet failed, resistance against Roman Emperor Claudius' invasion of England in 43 A.D.

Divination and Fortune-Telling Outlawed in Tajikistan

Well, how silly. Do the officials really think they'll be able to stop people from doing something they've been doing for thousands of years (long before Islam was invented)? This reminds me of the communists' attempts in Russia and China to stamp out organized religion. All it did was go underground. Supression never works in the long run. Tajikistan launches campaign against witchcraft Wed Dec 12, 11:31 AM ET DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan is launching a crackdown on witchcraft and fortune-telling as part of an anti-poverty drive after earlier banning lavish weddings and expensive funerals. Occultism is on the rise in Muslim Tajikistan. It is the poorest nation in ex-Soviet Central Asia, borders Afghanistan and was ravaged by a 1992-97 civil war. Queues to see sorcerers are often longer than those for regular doctors. "Those indulging in sorcery and fortune-telling shall be fined between 30 and 40 times the minimum monthly wage (85 pounds to 113 pounds)," says the text of a draft law backed by the lower chamber of the Tajik parliament on Wednesday and obtained by Reuters. The draft law has to be passed by the upper house and signed by President Imomali Rakhmon to become law. But this is widely seen as a formality. Rakhmon, in power since 1992, earlier this year imposed heavy fines on extravagant weddings and funerals. He set out strict limits for the ceremonies, including the number of guests, meals and cars. He also ordered the Tajik anti-corruption watchdog to investigate the incomes of students riding in expensive cars or using posh cell phones. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, Editing by Matthew Tostevin)