Leaps of fate

Spiders, bone and complex math were among the methods ancient cultures used to try to predict the future. What drives this need? Who are the soothsayers in our midst today?

- Anesha George

Risk analysts, it would appear, have always been around. They've just gone by different names: oracles, divination experts, shamans.

An exhibition currently underway at Oxford University's Bodleian Library offers a riveting look at how people of the past sought to predict their future.

The questions most commonly asked to oracles and divination experts are startlingly familiar: "Did my partner cheat on me?", "Will my mother's health improve?", "Are there better days coming?"

Oracles, Omens and Answers, which opened in December and concludes on April 27, has been curated by Michelle Pfeffer, a historian of science and religion, and David Zeitlyn, an anthropologist, both at Oxford University.

It explores ancient prediction and forecasting methods such as extispicy (the examining of animal entrails; a practice that dates to 3000 BCE Mesopotamia), the Ancient Greek oracles surviving as revered papyrus parchments (dating to about the 1st century BCE), and spider divination (still practised in Cameroon, with yes-or-no questions posed to spiders and crabs).

It wasn't just the desperate or lovelorn who sought out such assistance.