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Document Details : Title: The Skill of the Etruskan Haruspex Subtitle: A Biological Basis for Successful Divination? Author(s): TURFA, Jean MacIntosh , GETTYS, Sarah Journal: BABESCH Volume: 84 Date: 2009 Pages: 41-52 DOI: 10.2143/BAB.84.0.2041636 Abstract : A better understanding of the everyday realities of ancient life, for instance sheep-herding, could improve our study of such disparate fields as Etruscan religion and urbanism. The information acquired by participants in animal sacrifice, specifically haruspicy, the examination of sheep livers, could have given warning of hazardous situations and threats to the human community such as parasitic infection. The cultic response to such discoveries could also have led to the improvement of the human condition. We suggest some details of one such phenomenon, associated with artifacts such as the Piacenza model liver, an emblem of Etruscan divination. |
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