The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found in a field on September 26, 1877, near

Gossolengo Gossolengo ( egl, label= Piacentino, Uslëing or ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about southwest of Piacenza, in the valley of the Trebbi ...

, in the province of Piacenza, Italy, now kept in the Municipal Museum of Piacenza, in the Palazzo Farnese. It is a life-sized

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

model of a sheep's liver covered in Etruscan inscriptions ( TLE 719), measuring 126 × 76 × 60 mm (5 × 3 × 2.4 inches) and dated to the late 2nd century BC, i.e. a time when the Piacenza region would already have been Latin-dominated (Piacenza was founded in 218 BC as a Roman garrison town in

Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts ( Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was ...

Description

The liver is subdivided into sections for the purposes of performing haruspicy (hepatoscopy); the sections are inscribed with names of individual

Etruscan deities Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Et ...

. The Piacenza liver is a striking conceptual parallel to clay models of sheep's livers known from the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

, reinforcing the evidence of a connection (be it by migration or merely by cultural contact) between the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roug ...

and the Anatolian cultural sphere. A Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver dated to the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pr ...

is preserved in the British Museum. The Piacenza liver parallels the

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

n artifact by representing the major anatomical features of the liver (the gall bladder, caudate lobe and posterior vena cava) as sculpted protrusions. The outer rim of the Piacenza liver is divided into 16 sections; since according to the testimony of Pliny and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, the

divided the heavens into 16 astrological houses, it has been suggested that the liver is supposed to represent a model of the cosmos, and its parts should be identified as constellations or astrological signs. Each of the 16 houses was the "dwelling place" of an individual deity. Seers would e.g. draw conclusions from the direction in which

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average ...

was seen. Lightning in the east was auspicious, lightning in the west inauspicious (Pliny 2.143f.). Stevens (2009) surmises that Tin, the main god of lightning, had his dwelling due north, as lightning in the north-east was most lucky, lightning in the north-west most unlucky, while lightning in the southern half of the compass was not as strong an omen ( Servius ''ad. Aen.'' 2.693). The deciphering of the complex content of the Liver of Piacenza was the subject of two scientific monographs by the University of Bologna researche
Antonio Gottarelli
published between 2017 and 2018. These books represent the most complete analysis of its content and they reveal its nature of a handheld instrument for the digital calculation of a liturgical-ritual calendar. Its dating would be at fourth century BC and the position of place of discovery at 45° of latitude would be consistent with its instrumental use. The theonyms are abbreviated and in many cases, the reading even of the abbreviation is disputed. As a result, there is a consensus for the interpretation of individual names only in a small number of cases. The reading given below is that of Morandi (1991) unless otherwise indicated: circumference: # tin a/ cil/en # tin aθvf lθas# tins/θ neθ ns# uni/mae uni/ea ( Juno? Maia?) # tec/vm ( Cel? Tellus?) # lvsl # neθ ns (

Neptunus Neptunus is a baseball and softball club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following its 2014 championship season, the club signed a sponsorship contract for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons with Curaçao and competes under the name Curaçao Neptun ...

) # caθ ( Luna?Nancy T. de Grummond, ''Moon Over Pyrgi: Catha, an Etruscan Lunar Goddess?'', American Journal of Archaeology 112.3 (July 2008).) # fuflu/ns ( Bacchus) # selva ( Silvanus) # leθns # tluscv # celsc # cvl alp # vetisl (

Veiovis Vejovis or Vejove ( lat, Vēiovis, italic=yes or ''Vēdiovis''; rare ''Vēive'' or ''Vēdius'') was a Roman god of Etruscan origins. Representation and worship Vejovis was portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows, pilum, (or light ...

?) # cilensl interior: Two words are on the bottom side of the artefact: # tivs (or ''tivr'' "Moon" or "Month"

# usils ("of the sun" or "of the day")

Description

See also

Notes

Further reading