This book deals with the Iecur Placentinum, the bronze model of a sheep’s liver, bearing 42 Etruscan inscriptions. The Piacenza Liver is a highly interesting document of the utmost importance for the understanding of Etruscan religion. It will appear that the network with the inscribed names of divinities on both sides of the Liver depicts a microcosmos reflecting the macrocosmos, the Etruscan division of heaven.

This book deals with the Iecur Placentinum, the bronze model of a sheep s liver, bearing 42 Etruscan inscriptions. The Piacenza Liver is a highly interesting document of the utmost importance for the understanding of Etruscan religion. It will appear that the network with the inscribed names of divinities on both sides of the Liver depicts a microcosmos reflecting the macrocosmos, the Etruscan division of heaven.

The Romans were a superstitious bunch with public portents forming an integral role in most political and social ceremonies and rituals. This detailed analysis of prodigia (unusual events that were reported to the Senate who then proclaimed that event as an unfavourable portent) does not look at what these events reveal about Roman psychology but, instead, focuses on the sociological consequences of this complete integration of politics and religion during the Republican period. Much of the book comprises a table of prodigies, gathered from primary sources, notably Livy's Ab urbe condita and Julius Obsequens' Ab anno-urbis conditae DV prodigium liber . This data is supported by detailed discussions of Cicero and public divination, the relationship between divination and science, the types of portents and the nature of religio-politics. Danish summary.

This volume, in the "Colloquia Pontica" series, deals with Berezan, the first Greek colony in the northern Black Sea. For more than 100 years archaeologists from Russia and the Ukraine have been excavating this extraordinary island site. This, the first synthesis of their work in any language, presents the history and archaeology of the site from its establishment in the 7th century BC to the medieval period.

Ancient Greek culture is often described as a miracle, owing little to its neighbors. Walter Burkert argues against a distorted view, toward a more balanced picture. "Under the influence of the Semitic East--from writers, craftsmen, merchants, healers--Greek culture began its unique flowering, soon to assume cultural hegemony in the Mediterranean."

"William Furley and Victor Gysembergh present a study of ancient Greek extispicy (a form of prophecy by consulting animal entrails) based on the remains of ancient technical manuals on the subject. The aim is to study the papyrological texts in detail for their meaning and to relate this to similar practices in other parts of the ancient world"--