KAMALA / HOME
MATTER / Landscape, weather & animal signs
Extispicy / hepatoscopy.
Historical readings of internal organs, with hepatoscopy specifically concerning the liver.
LEXICON / LANGUAGE & MEANING
Names in context.
- Extispicy
- Extispicina
Historical divination through examination of internal organs.
- Hepatoscopy
- Hepatoscopia
Historical divination specifically through the liver.
- Haruspicy
- Aruspicina
A related term for the interpretive work of a haruspex, especially in Etruscan and Roman contexts.
PROVENANCE & INTERPRETATIONA practice,
A practice,
a setting.
Mesopotamian omen tablets and clay liver models document training and interpretation. This is an archival topic using existing texts, models and collection records.
FIELD NOTE / METHOD
Keep a record.
- Choose an existing tablet, model or published translation.
- Record the object’s provenance and the features named in its catalog.
- Compare the historical omen text and the represented feature without treating it as anatomical prediction.
POTPOURRI / PHOTO GUIDE
What to include.
- Use a permitted image of a museum model, tablet or archive page.
- Supply the accession number and a readable detail of the feature or text under discussion.
POTPOURRI / PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
Photo instructions & submission ↗Share a photograph or a record.
A photograph, drawing or dated record can be sent privately for a personal reading. Include the procedure and the question.