Coping with chance: animal bones and the aleatory

During our excavations of the Cantabrian Early Magdalenian levels in the site of El Juyo (Igollo, Cantabria), a series of peculiar bone arti- facts was recovered. These consisted of one group of three small cut bones found together in Level 6 and several fragmentary engraved and burnt cervid scapulae, found in greatest numbers in Level 8. Comparison with ethnographically known specimens suggests that these pieces may have been used as divinatory devices to deal with the random vagaries of the natural world. We postulate that the cut bones may have been dice used in gaming and divination, and that the scapulas are the result of the practice of scapulimancy.