Squares and holes

All over the model, we see little squares with holes in them, covered in cuneiform writing. These have everything to do with this model’s function: predicting the future.

When the piece of clay was shaped into a liver shape, squares could be carved and text could be inscribed into the squares using a stylus. The holes in the squares were used to put in wooden sticks. This was done for ease of interpretation.

Real livers were inspected in order to predict the future. Upon seeing something normal when inspecting a liver, a wooden stick was put into the corresponding area on the clay model. These squares were filled with cuneiform inscriptions. If some anomaly was present on a specific part of a real liver, the correct deduction had to be made based on the corresponding inscription on the clay model. These inscriptions contained important information about the future. Cuneiform is one of the oldest writing systems in the world! Do you want to know more about this fascinating script and learn it from the very talented and funny Assyriologist Irving Finkel? See the following videos: Writing cuneiform, What is cuneiform?, Irving Finkel teaches cuneiform After finishing the model, the object was baked, thereby increasing its strength and durability.

Do you want to learn more about the context of this tablet and about the thoughts of the person who was lucky enough to find this intriguing object? Click below! Otherwise, let’s continue to learn more about divination.