The Colchester Archaeologist 1996-7 - Colchester Archaeological ...

some sort which incorporated eightcopper-alloy rings. The rings lay in arow suggesting that the container wasin the form of a wide, narrow box withan open top where the rings were fixedalong its length. Each ring was attachedto a cloth or leather covering over thewooden container by a narrow loop ofcloth or thread.We are as yet at a loss to explain thefunction of the rods or the rings, butthere may be a clue in how the rods layin the grave. Five of the rods had beenplaced in a neat pile at one end of thebox, with the other three at an angle soas to rest on the gaming board. Thiscareful arrangement suggests that, likethe gaming board, the rods were laidout as if in use. One explanation for therods is that they were used for divination.This is not so much a way oftrying to tell the future but of trying tofind out if the time is right for whatevercourse of action is being contemplated.The idea then was to see if thegods were well disposed towards whateveraction was being proposed. A wellknownexample of this practice was tobe found at Roman weddings wherethe entrails (particularly the liver) of asacrificed animal were examined to seeif it was the right time for such an eventand if the couple were well suited. Inthe case of the rods from Stanway,would-be patients might wish to see ifthe time was right to submit themselvesto the surgeon's knife. Ourphysician, if that what he was, couldthus provide the complete service —consultation with the gods and thenfull surgical intervention. Divinationcould be carried out by observing naturalevents such as the flight of birds,shooting stars or, as mentioned above,the physical characteristics of entrails.Sortilege is divination by the casting ordrawing of lots. Various techniqueshave been used around the worldand involve such things as birdbones, knuckle bones, pebbles,and arrows. This lastmethod involved drawing speciallymarked arrows from acontainer or casting them down onthe ground and interpreting the resultantpattern. It is interesting to notethat the Stanway rods are rather likestylised arrows. It may be that eachring held a single rod upright and thesewere then drawn from the container aspart of the divination process.Ralph Jackson confidently discountsany medical or veterinary function forthe rods, but there are of course otherpossible explanations for them. Theymight have been parts of another game,or they might have been used in conjunctionwith the gaming board, perhapsto push the pieces around ratherlike the way a croupier collects counterson a gaming table. The rods looklike very large versions of Romanimplements called styli which wereused for writing on wax tablets, somaybe they were for writing or inscribingletters or symbols on the ground orsome similar soft surface. Howevernone of these ideas seems particularlyplausible, which is why something likedivination begins to look like a seriouspossibility. Such a use does at leastallow for the rods occurring in two differentmaterials when there is no obviouspractical reason why this should beso.The gameThe counters were made of glass inthe shape of thick chocolate dropswhere one side is flat and the othercurved. There were two colours,white and blue, and there were thirteenof each. All the counters werebroadly the same size except for onewhite counter which was about half thediameter of the others.The board was made of wood whichpreliminary investigations suggest ismaple. It was about 55 cm long and 40cm wide. It was hinged at both ends sothat it folded longways. Each cornerwas strengthened with a right-angledmetal bracket. The proportions of theboard suggest that it was laid out as agrid of twelve by eight squares. Theblue pieces were placed along one sideof the board lengthways and the whitewere placed down the other side so thatall twelve squares were filled on eachside. The small white counter (the thirteenthone) was placed near the centreof the board. The thirteenth blue, distinguishedfrom the others by beingupside down, was placed in one corner,near blue's base line. Presumably theupside counter was the blue equivalentof the small white one. Perhaps originallythere had been a small bluecounter too but it was lost.8