Ritual Shafts

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Ritual or Holy Shafts are deep pits, some reaching 100ft in depth where offerings are deposited. The offerings can range from votive offerings to offerings of sacrifices and foods and other stranger items such as branches of sacred trees. 

 The Shaft is generally noted by a well like stone structure at the top and a wooden stake at the bottom. It may be that live sacrifices were pushed into the pit first to sanctify the place, though this is merely a theory based on the Organic matter that surrounds the wooden stake in archaeological examples.

 The shafts were used to communicate with infernal deities, as in those deities that exist in the Earth such as An Dagda and other Sidhe. It is also likely used to give offerings to the dead and ancestors.

 There is not much known of these shafts beyond this.