Editing Haruspex (section)

==Ancient Near East==
{{further|Bārûtu|Orientalizing period}}
[[File:Divinatory livers Louvre AO19837.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Assyria#Old Assyrian Empire, 2025–1522 BC|
Akkadian language ]] clay sheep liver models written in a local dialect, recovered from the palace at [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], dated to the 19th or 18th century BC.]]
{{blockquote|The spread of hepatoscopy is one of the clearest examples of cultural contact in the orientalizing period. It must have been a case of East-West understanding on a relatively high, technical level. The mobility of migrant charismatics is the natural prerequisite for this diffusion, the international role of sought-after specialists, who were, as far as their art was concerned, nevertheless bound to their father-teachers. We cannot expect to find many archaeologically identifiable traces of such people, other than some exceptional instances.|[[Walter Burkert]], 1992. ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'' (Thames and Hudson), p. 51.}}

The Babylonians were famous for hepatoscopy. This practice is mentioned in the [[Book of Ezekiel]] 21:21:

{{blockquote|For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he [[belomancy|shaketh the arrows]] to and fro, he inquireth of the [[teraphim]], he looketh in the liver.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et1221.htm|title = Ezekiel 21|publisher = Mechon-Mamre|website = Hebrew Bible in English}}</ref><ref>See also: Darshan, Guy, [https://www.academia.edu/19691541/The_Meaning_of_%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%90_Ezek_21_24_and_the_Prophecy_Concerning_Nebuchadnezzar_at_the_Crossroads_Ezek_21_23_29_18_24_ZAW_128_2016_83_95 "The Meaning of bārēʾ (Ez 21,24) and the Prophecy Concerning Nebuchadnezzar at the Crossroads (Ez 21,23-29)"], ZAW 128 (2016), 83-95. A more modern  translation, from the [[New English Bible]], translates the verse as follows: "For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver." [http://www.htmlbible.com/kjv30/B26C021.htm New English Bible online]</ref>}}

One Babylonian clay model of a sheep's liver, dated between 1900 and 1600 BC, is conserved in the [[British Museum]].<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1889-0426-238 The Liver tablet 92668].</ref>

The Assyro-Babylonian tradition was also adopted in [[Hittite religion]]. At least thirty-six liver-models have been excavated at [[Hattusa]]. Of these, the majority are inscribed in Akkadian,  but a few examples also have inscriptions in the native [[Hittite language]], indicating the adoption of haruspicy as part of the native, vernacular cult.<ref>four specimens are known to Güterbock (1987): [[Catalogue des Textes Hittites|CTH]] 547 II, KBo 9 67, KBo 25, KUB 4 72 (VAT 8320 in [[Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin]]), for which see also [[George Sarton]], ''Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece'' (1952, 1970), [https://books.google.com/books?id=VcoGIKlHuZcC&pg=PA93 p. 93], citing Alfred Boissier, ''Mantique babylonienne et mantique hittite'' (1935).</ref>