The liver models (1)

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The Etruscan discipline of taking omens from liver inspection (hepatoscopy, haruspicina) shows remarkably close correspondence to the form of divination developed in Mesopotamia and this can best be explained as the transmission of a “school” from Babylon to Etruria. The correspondence between Etruscan and Assyrian hepatoscopy is evident when one compares the Etruscan bronze liver found at Piacenza with the Mesopotamian clay models. The system on the slaughter of sheep, the models of sheep livers from clay and metal and the custom of providing them with inscriptions for the sake of explanation, is something peculiar found precisely along the corridor from the Euphrates via Syria and Cyprus to Etruria. It can even be shown that both the Assyrian and the Etruscan models diverge from nature in a similar way; that is, they are derived not directly from observation but from common traditional lore. Models of livers are the concrete archaeological evidence for the diffusion of Mesopotamian hepatoscopy. Besides Mesopotamia such models have been found since the Bronze Age with the Hittites of Asia Minor; in Alalah, Tell el Hajj, and Ugarit in Syria; in Hazor and Megiddo in Palestine; and also on Cyprus. Assyrian hepatoscopy was practiced at Tarsus in Cilicia in the time of the Assyrians.

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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