The Fortune-Telling of Liver, Bird-Flying in Hittites and Their Tracks on Etruscans

Abstract

The human in ancient times regarded certain supernatural objects or events, which looked superior to them as celestial because he was afraid of the nature. As a result, he made up a number of totems in the nature such as the sun, moon, sky, soil, water, plants and etc.; for this reason all religious movements were built on a politeist and pantheonist mind. On the other hand, the irresistible desire in man to find out what gods thought of him was the main constituent of the fortune-telling. As in all ancient societies, Hittites and Etruscans also developed certain techniques of fortune-telling to know about the theological wish, among which were fortune-telling of liver or bird-flying. In this study, in spite of the highly distant time zones of Hittites and Etruscans, these two similar techniques were depicted. In that way, it is correlated that there could be a cultural link between Hittites, who established a prominent civilization in Anatolia, and Etruscans, assumed to be an Anatolian originated society before establishing another prominent civilization in Europe, who also had a prominent effect on Roman culture.