READING RUNES, TELLING SPOONS: PRIESTS, RITUAL AND MAGIC IN IRON AGE AND ROMAN BRITANNIA.

This paper concerns the elusive but compelling evidence for ritual behaviour associated with divination. This practice, as presented in ancient Britannia, appears to have embraced two approaches to the spirits. Reverence for the gods and desire to propitiate them was seemingly seasoned with a fair sprinkling of magic, where the balance of power shifted from spirits to human and where the latter use occult forces to manipulate the former. I begin with a short discourse on the nature of magic, followed by attempts to identify ritualists in the archaeological record. The section on art examines its positioning on cult-objects where it is confined to the parts regularly held by people, raising the question as to whether this contact might have involved transmission of a spiritual «charge» to the holder. There follow observations on particular divinatory practices that include lot-casting; the apparent significance of spoken and chanted words and music; and the evidence for the role played by transformatory experiences, such as visions and dreams. The final section deals with specific attributes, associated with bog-bodies, where there is possible relevance to the paper's central theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]