Last but not least, two intriguing protruding segments are part of the liver. A big mountain on the right and a small mountain on the left. The larger bulge on the right, which looks a little like a pyramid, is called the pyramidal process; it does live up to its name.
The small bulge on the left is termed the papillary process. In ancient times, the inspector (bārû) would call the papillary and pyramidal processes the ṣibtum, meaning ‘increment’, and ubānum, meaning ‘finger’, respectively. Peter Schmidt, “What exactly is the “lobe of the liver,” Translation Aids – Offerings & Sacrifices (2019): 1; Albrecht Goetze, Old Babylonian Omen Texts (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1947), 5-9. ; I. Starr, “The practice of Extispicy”, Queries to the Sungod. State Archives of Assyria IV (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1990), XLV. These two are part of the caudate lobe (or upper lobe), which lies adjacent to the right and left lobe. A narrow groove separates these three lobes and is termed the porta hepatis. Morris Jastrow Jr., Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (New York; London: The Knickerbocker Press, 1911), 156-157 The bārû named the right and left lobes “the ‘right and left wings’, and the caudate lobe as the ‘middle of the liver’. Antonio Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Martins, and Carolina Martins, “History of liver anatomy: Mesopotamian liver clay models”, Hepato Pancreato Biliary 15 (2013): 322-323.
These are the visible parts of a sheep’s liver recognizable on this clay tablet. If you are inspired to learn more Akkadian terminology regarding the sheep’s liver, see Koch’s work on Babylonian liver omens: Ulla Koch-Westenholz, Babylonian Liver Omens: The Chaptes Manzāzu, Padānu and Pān Tākalti of the Babylonian Extispicy Series mainly from Aššurbanipal’s Library (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000), 43-70.
Let us now have a look at what is actually written on the tablet. What were the consequences of an anomaly and what kind of predictions could be made depending on the type of anomaly?