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A New Reconstruction of the Etruscan Heaven

April 2009 (113.2)
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A New Reconstruction of the Etruscan Heaven

113.2
Natalie L.C. Stevens
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The Etruscan 16-part cosmological system can be reconstructed on the basis of the bronze Liver of Piacenza (ca. 100 B.C.E.) and Martianus Capella’s The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, an intriguing fifth-century C.E. text. Reconstructing the 16-part heaven also has important implications for the orientation of Etruscan religious buildings, some of which seem to have been oriented toward the heavenly residence of the divinity/divinities worshiped there. Until now, two reconstructions of the Etruscan heaven have been proposed by Etruscologists; though seemingly incompatible, they are, in fact, both partially correct. This article builds on those reconstructions and proposes a solution that leads to the conclusion that the Etruscan heaven was subject to a seasonal movement of two regions per season, a clockwise and counterclockwise rotating movement influenced by the positions of sunrise and sunset on the solstices and equinoxes.

More articles like this: 
Etruscan
Iconography
Literary Studies
Religion/Cult
Italy > Emilia-Romagna

A New Reconstruction of the Etruscan Heaven

By Natalie L.C. Stevens

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 113, No. 2 (April 2009), pp. 153–164

DOI: 10.3764/aja.113.2.153

© 2009 Archaeological Institute of America

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