Abstrakt
Rituals played an important role in the everyday life of the Etruscan society. Etruria and its people were well known for their obsession in regards to divination and prophetic rituals.
The unknown had to be explained through the divine intervention and a series of rituals and ceremonies were defined. Etruscan doctrine, named disciplina etrusca, was organized in many rules, all of them fully described in details.
This doctrine based mainly on the divination from liver or other entrails of animals was described in libri haruspicini, the interpretation of lightnings in libri fulgurales, rituals in libri rituales. The observation of the flight of the birds was called auspicium.
It is worth to note that within the Roman period, Etruscan divination and its rituals continued, and were used also by the conquerors of Etruria. This poster will introduce disciplina etrusca and then it will focus on the iconography of those Etruscan tombs and engraved bronze mirrors, where rituals of divination can be described and identified.
In order to facilitate the comprehension of disciplina etrusca, ancient authors (e.g. Cicero and Tacitus) will be used to clarify certain aspects of the rituals, as well as scenes from frescoes and other objects of the material culture.