CDLI tablet
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva: 4 (2024-04-02)
Created by: Clevenstine, Emmert
Looking for omens in a sacrificed animal.
In ancient Mesopotamia, as in ancient Rome, it was believed that gods would “write” clues to the future in the entrails of animals sacrificed to them. Divination was a particular interest of Alfred Boissier, whose collection forms a large part of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire´s holdings. This tablet (MAH 16274), undated but Old Babylonian in script and style, describes the liver and lungs of a sacrificial animal, probably a sheep. To help decode the message, diviners (barû) had clay models of livers with different parts labeled, and lists of associations between anatomical features and events in the world (one example is found in the MAH collection).
CDLI entry: P424126
credit: Clevenstine, Emmert
Cite this CDLI Tablet
@misc{CDLI2026,
note = {[Online; accessed 2026-11-05]},
author = {{CDLI contributors}},
year = {2026},
month = {nov 5},
title = {},
url = {https://cdli.earth/cdli-tablet/124},
howpublished = {https://cdli.earth/cdli-tablet/124},
}
TY - ELEC AU - CDLI contributors DA - 2026/11/5/ PY - 2026 ID - temp_id_294056484506 M1 - 2026/11/5/ TI - UR - https://cdli.earth/cdli-tablet/124 ER -