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At this point you know all about extispicy, but how did the bārû’s learn to ‘read’ a sheep’s liver? Our clay model was likely used as a learning aid. It could have been used by students to help them understand every part of the liver and all the associated meanings. The students had to learn every detail of the anatomy of a sheep’s liver, e.g., the location of the ‘left and right wing’ and the position of the ‘finger’, et cetera. In addition, they needed to know the corresponding inscription written on the clay model. When there was, for example, an anomaly detected on a specific area of the gall-bladder of a real sheep’s liver, the students had to recall that it was in fact the gall-bladder. In addition, they needed to learn which inscription written on the clay model corresponded to that part of the gall-bladder, where the anomaly was seen on the real sheep’s liver. After learning every possible part of the liver, it was important to gain knowledge about each type of anomaly, the size or absence of parts of the liver and their related meaning.

Now, let's try to be an ancient Babylonian student ourselves and learn about the anatomy of the liver!

Not interested in liver anatomy? Skip to step 9 to read some cuneiform!