However I have a fresh entry just itching to be written about the Etruscan Piacenza Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver created for the ritualistic practice called haruspicy in order to divine the future.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2008-12-01] Reference

And need I mention the already-proven importation of haruspicy from Anatolia yet again?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The celestial bodies Etruscan-style] Reference

Both mirrors suggest nothing more that vinum, mixed perhaps with some venena, was a great help in haruspicy.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

It is the inner regions that directly impact on haruspicy and probably have little bearing to the other forms of divination.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 3] Reference

To sum up then, we can just say that the outer regions are for auspicy and brontoscopy while the inner regions are for haruspicy.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 3] Reference

The Piacenza Liver is an Etruscan bronze model used for haruspicy i.e. divination using sheep's livers for those that aren't familiar with it.    From Wordnik.com.  [Solving the inner portions of the Piacenza Liver] Reference

It's well known that Etruscan haruspicy ie. divining the future from sheep's livers can only have derived from Anatolia where it was also practiced.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

Indeed, it was discovered long ago - the Near-Eastern origin of haruspicy is readily available in general reference books such as Encyclopedia Britannica.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 4] Reference

It's hardly a trustworthy, first-hand account of Etruscan haruspicy when compared to the Babylonian artifact from Sippar whose picture I've shown in Part 1.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 4] Reference

The Piacenza Liver a representation of a sheep's liver cast in bronze for use in haruspicy is deliberately sectioned off with lines indicating the domains of individual gods with specific names.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2007-02-01] Reference

Yet if we accept that such important things like the Etruscan alphabet and haruspicy are both exogenous, what then is left which can be said to be autochthonous to Italy and which is still identifiably Etruscan?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 4] Reference

I feel like I owe you people another post and besides, the matter of Etruscan haruspicy might be too heavy for many of my readers since I normally get more comments when I rant about Indo-European and its prehistorical development.    From Wordnik.com.  [To be or not to have. That is the question.] Reference

Doing a quick search for “Babylonian haruspicy” in Google Books shows me that academics knew about this curious ancient science to the east involving the gruesome inspection of sheep's livers to divine the future as far back as 1897.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 4] Reference

One link online concerning Babylonian haruspicy i.e. the practice of divining the future through sheep livers may oddly enough help us shed some light on Etruscan rites, beliefs and cosmology: Sacrificial divination: Confirmation of extispicy.    From Wordnik.com.  [Piacenza Liver and The Palace Gate] Reference

It seems practically everything of Etruscans has already been shown historically to originate from the Near East despite any denials from a few narrow-minded historians: divine hammer/mallet/labrys, haruspicy, the alphabet, architecture, pottery styles, world-view, etc.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

As you say, Hercle is most definitely performing haruspicy because of his left foot raised to rest on what looks like nothing more than a stone, unbeknownst to mysterymonger De Grummond who mangles the meaning of the mirror with cutesy parenthesized question marks and disjointed artistic interpretations.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

The outer regions really only pertain to the sky and this logically means that they pertain not to haruspicy itself but rather to other known forms of divination in Etruria, namely auspicy (i.e. the interpretation of the movement of birds for omens) and brontoscopy (i.e. the interpretation of lightning as omen).    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 3] Reference

The Piacenza Liver is a bronze object designed to express the entire science of divination into a single model, uniting the practices of divination from lightning and bird omens (nb. the border representing the horizon and associated deities which is useful for these practices) with that of omens read from sheep livers (nb. the inner portion useful only to haruspicy).    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-07-01] Reference

When we read that ancient tyrants hired magicians to perform haruspicy with the entrails of dismembered infants, we immediately discount the record as propaganda.    From Wordnik.com.  [Take Your Vitamin Z] Reference

And what better explains the origin of the practice of haruspicy/extispicy than this world-view which establishes at once why it is that entrails are used for divination (ie. its connection to earth and the dead, all that is hidden and why the Sun, who sees all, is considered keeper of divine knowledge (cf.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

So it seems Hercle is performing haruspicy.    From Wordnik.com.  [More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world] Reference

(q) Validity through haruspicy?.    From Wordnik.com.  [VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 3] Reference

Babylonian, etruscan, extispicy, haruspicy.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-01-01] Reference

Babylonian, etruscan, extispicy, haruspicy comments.    From Wordnik.com.  [Piacenza Liver and The Palace Gate] Reference

Etruscan, haruspicy, history, mythology, piacenza liver.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2008-12-01] Reference

Etruscan, haruspicy, history, mythology, piacenza liver comments.    From Wordnik.com.  [Solving the inner portions of the Piacenza Liver] Reference

Archaeology, divination, etruscan, extispicy, haruspicy, history, mythology, roman comments.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 4] Reference

Archaeology, divination, etruscan, extispicy, haruspicy, history, mythology, piacenza liver, roman comments.    From Wordnik.com.  [Finding structure in the Piacenza Liver despite academic claptrap - Part 2] Reference

Others include, for example, chirognomy, chiroscopy, haruspicy (or haruspication), hieroscopy, horoscopy, keraunoscopy, omoplatoscopy, orniscopy and palmistry.    From Wordnik.com.  [VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VI No 2] Reference