It is a life-sizedbronze model of a sheep's liver covered inEtruscan 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 beenLatin-dominated (Piacenza was founded in 218 BC as a Roman garrison town inCisalpine Gaul).
The liver is subdivided into sections for the purposes of performingharuspicy (hepatoscopy); the sections are inscribed with names of individualEtruscan deities.
The Piacenza liver is a striking conceptual parallel to clay models of sheep's livers known from theAncient Near East, reinforcing the evidence of a connection (be it bymigration or merely by cultural contact) between theEtruscans and theAnatolian cultural sphere. A Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver dated to theMiddle Bronze Age is preserved in the British Museum.[2] The Piacenza liver parallels theBabylonian artifact by representing the major anatomical features of the liver (thegall bladder,caudate lobe andposterior vena cava) as sculpted protrusions.
The outer rim of the Piacenza liver is divided into 16 sections; since according to the testimony ofPliny andCicero,[citation needed] theEtruscans divided the heavens into 16astrological houses, it has been suggested that the liver is supposed to represent amodel of the cosmos, and its parts should be identified as constellations or astrological signs.[citation needed] In this interpretation, each of the 16 houses was the "dwelling place" of an individual deity. Seers would e.g. draw conclusions from the direction in whichlightning was seen. Lightning in the east was auspicious, lightning in the west inauspicious (Pliny 2.143f.). Stevens (2009) surmises thatTin, 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 (Serviusad. Aen. 2.693).
Thetheonyms 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:
^beginning in the "north" (the left side in the image shown above) and going clockwise, c.f. Nancy Thomson De Grummond,Etruscan Myth, Sacred History and Legend (2006),p. 50.
C. Thulin (1906)Die Götter des martianus capella und die Bronzeleber fon Piacenza, Giessen, Töpelmann.
L.B. Van der Meer (1987)The bronze liver of Piacenza: Analysis of a Polytheistic Structure, Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben.
Alessandro Morandi (1991)Nuovi lineamenti di lingua etrusca, Massari.[2]
Natalie L. C. Stevens (April 2009)A New Reconstruction of the Etruscan Heaven American Journal of Archaeology 113.22, 153-164.
Antonio Gottarelli (2017)Cosmogonica. Il fegato di Tiāmat e la soglia misterica del Tempo. Dai miti cosmologici del Vicino Oriente antico ad una nuova interpretazione del fegato etrusco di Piacenza, collana di "Archeologia del Rito", n.2, Te.m.p.l.a., Bologna.[3]
Antonio Gottarelli (2018)Padānu. Un’ombra tra le mani del tempo. La decifrazione funzionale del fegato etrusco di Piacenza, collana di "Archeologia del Rito", n.3, Te.m.p.l.a., Bologna.[4]
