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A alloy detectorist look for individual land on the Isle of Man has uncovered a rare bronze spoonful that experts think may have been used by an Iron Age shaman to tell the future .
The spoonful , which is forge almost like a strawberry , is one of only 28 that have been found in Europe and go steady back to 400 to 100 B.C.
A ritual spoon discovered on the Isle of Man is only one of 28 known of its kind across Europe.
" Although it voice rather plain because we call it a spoon , it really is an unusual discovery illustrating potential ritual activity take place on the Isle of Man , " Allison Fox , curator of archeology atManx National Heritage , said in a Feb. 10statement .
expert are timid exactly what these spoons were used for , however . The stadium of the utensil is engrave with two lines that form a cross at the bottom , separating the bowl into four quadrants .
" It has been suggested that liquid of some shape would have been poured into the spoonful which has the cross , and whatever quarter it landed in would tell something about the time to come , " Fox said .
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Similar ritual spoons have been find in Britain , Ireland and France .
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The British Museum has several of these metal spoons , which are often find in pairs — one with an incise cross and one with a minuscule hole . A liquid such as water , beer or even rip may have been dripped from the spoon with the hole into the cross - hatched spoon . According to theBritish Museum , the fact that many spoons were find in tomb may suggest they were personal point rather than part of the funeral observance .
The newly discover spoonful is the first of its kind to be discover on the Isle of Man , according to Fox , and " this find in finicky puts the Isle of Man firmly on the map of Iron Age ritual . "
The detectorist and the landholder have donate the bronze spoonful to Manx National Collections . It is now on display at theHouse of Manannan , a museum on the west coast of the island .
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