Ebook: Human Sacrifice: Etruscan Rituals for Death and for Life

In: Interpretando l'antico: scritti di archeologia offerti a Maria Bonghi Jovino. Tomo primo. — Milano: Cisalpino, 2012. — pp. 67-82.Human sacrifices existed in every culture in antiquity. We are familiar with those of the Bog People, Aztec sacrifices, the sacrifices carried out by the Druids among the Celts, the tophets of the Carthaginians, the sacrifice of Iphigeneia in Greek myth and the Biblical account of the Lord demanding the sacrifice of Isaac. Excavations have uncovered archaeological evidence from a variety of sites that seem to confirm the existence of ritual sacrifices in the ancient world. An impressive confirmation of the existence of such rituals in real life in Etruria was the discovery of a foundation sacrifice in the Civita of Tarquinia.