A term derived from the Greek astragalos ('dice' or 'knucklebone') and manteia ('divination') and applied originally to a method of telling the future from the throw of small bones (usually sheep bones), but nowadays is also applied to the throw of dice, since they were once made from bones; a form of divination involving dice, small bones or knuckle-bones, in which letters are marked on the faces of the dice and the future is foretold from the words formed as the dice fall.
Originally, as with dice games, the "dice" were knucklebones or other small bones of quadrupeds. Marked astragali (talus bones) of sheep and goats are common at Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeological sites, particularly at funeral and religious locations. For example, marked astragali have been found near the altar of Aphrodite Ourania in Athens, Greece, suggesting astragalomancy was performed near the altar after about 500 BC.
Also known as cleromancy, 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. They have been in use for thousands of years, and remain extant.
Since astragalomancy is a form of sortition, numbers are scrawled into the dice; the numbers are associated with letters, thus bearing on the questions of the diviner. The diviner then casts the dice, resulting in a random sequence of numbers. The diviner interprets this sequence according to certain rules – usually rules specific to his/her religion (e.g. Buddhism).
Astragalomancy is considered the twin of pessomancy (also known as psephomancy) – another act of divination which uses colored or marked pebbles as opposed to numbered dice. These pebbles are either thrown out of a bag after shuffling or drawn from the bag at random. The interpretation of the colors or symbols relate to issues such as health, communications, success, and travel.
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