Astragalomancy

Common card · No. 436754

Astragalomancy, also known as cubomancy or astragyromancy, is a form of divination that uses dice specially marked with letters or numbers. Historically, as with dice games, the "dice" were usually knucklebones or other small bones of quadrupeds. Marked astragali (talus bones) of sheep and goats are commonly found in Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeological sites, particularly those that served as funerary and religious locations. For example, marked astragali have been found near the altar of Aphrodite Ourania in Athens, Greece, suggesting that astragalomancy was performed near the altar after about 500 BCE. The practice of contacting divine truth via random castings of dice or bones stretches back before recorded history. The Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed bone "dice" (hakata) used by the Shona people of Southern Africa. Astragalomancy is often considered to be a branch of cleromancy. As a form of sortition, numbers are scrawled into the dice; the numbers are associated with...

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