When and where stone divination, also known as ‘lithomancy’ started is not clear. The Turks and the ancient Romans were known to have used it. Given its primitive simplicity and the easy availability of stones, it’s fair to speculate stone divination could’ve been the first form of divination ever invented.
The number of stones used in this divination method can vary. These days, the most common stone divination methods employ either twelve, thirteen or sixteen stones. So long as you are clear on what each stone represents, any number of stones you want to use is valid. We’re going to focus on stone-divining systems which use a relatively-small number of stones.