Divination is an ancient practice. People from across the world have used various ways to attempt to anticipate or predict the future, but have you ever heard of divination spoons? Well, a 2,000-year-old bronze spoon that may have been used for such things has been discovered on private land on the West Coast of the Isle of Man, in the British Isles.
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The bronze Iron Age spoon is the first of its kind to be discovered on the Isle of Man, although 27 similar artifacts have been recovered from across Britain, Ireland, and France. This particular spoon was found on the farmland of David Anderson by Rob Middleton, a metal detectorist.
“Dating to around 400-100 [BCE], this bronze spoon is one of the most intriguing objects ever discovered on the Island,” Allison Fox, Curator for Archaeology for Manx National Heritage, explained in a statement.
The Iron Age lasted from about 500 BCE to 500 CE on the Isle of Man. The people living at this time lived in small communities across the island, usually in huts of timber or stone known as roundhouses. During the middle of this period, the Romans had started their occupation of Britain, but there is currently no evidence that they lived on the Isle of Man. However, there are some artifacts that hint at potential connections between the people on the island the Romans.
“Iron Age finds are relatively scarce, with bronze spoons dating to this period rare, making this find all the more remarkable,” Fox added. “Although it sounds rather plain because we call it a spoon, it really is an unusual find illustrating potential prehistoric ritual activity taking place on the Isle of Man.”
The spoon is more or less a flattened version of the spoon heads we have today. It has a kind of strawberry-shaped bowl and a circular handle with a spiral design. There is a lightly engraved cross appearing on the bowl, with the lines meeting towards its deepest part.
Although it is not clear what this object was originally used for, it is believed that it may have once served in some sort of fortune-telling activity. During the Iron Age, people had various practices associated with sprits or gods who were believed to influence the future in some way. It seems this spoon is an example of way such method that may have been used by people trying to predict how their fate was set.
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“The spoons are usually found in pairs, and it has been suggested that liquid of some form would have been poured into the spoon which has the cross, and whatever quarter it landed in would tell something about the future. The details of such ceremonies have been lost in the midst of time,” Fox explained.
The Patrick-Middleton spoon went on display at the House of Manannan on Friday, February 14, 2025.
“We are hugely grateful to both Rob and David for donating this very special find. Both have given other artefacts over the years to the Manx National Collections, and all are now available for further research,” Fox concluded. “Donations such as this really help us explore what our ancestors were up to, and this find in particular puts the Isle of Man firmly on the map of Iron Age ritual”.
Source Link: 2,000-Year-Old Divination Spoon Discovered On The Isle Of Man Is Only 28th Ever Found
