Attempts to Understand the World: The significance of divination inEtruria in the mid first millennium BCE

Abstract

The paper focus on divination in the Etruscan area. By tracing the evolution of divination in the Etruscan civilization and comparing it to other forms of divination in different regions, it aims to elucidate the proximate link between the evolution of divination in ancient societies, exemplified by the Etruscans, and the advent of urbanization. Furthermore, the paper seeks to illuminate the similarities between divination in the ancient Mediterranean and the Near East since the Iron Age, which reflect a marvelous resonance between two different societies during a period of transformative urban states. The preceding discussions collectively converge upon the central tenet of this paper: divination represents one of the figurative embodiments of the cosmology of the ancient ancestors, and it is their significant endeavor to read the world in a systematic manner.