Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis
Liber Linteus
Correct religious practice depends on performing the right rite to the right god on the right calendar date, so the text lays out a ritual calendar of offerings and observances rather than any narrative or historical record.
- the longest surviving Etruscan text
- a ritual calendar of dated offerings rather than narrative
- preserved only by chance reuse as Egyptian mummy wrapping
- Etruscan's incomplete decipherment limits translation to structure and vocabulary, not full sense
The longest surviving Etruscan text by far, some 1,300 words, written on linen and preserved only because the cloth was later cut into strips and used to wrap an Egyptian mummy now in Zagreb, where it was rediscovered in the 19th century. Because Etruscan remains only partially understood, the text cannot be fully translated, but its repeated date formulas, divine names, and verbs of offering and sacrifice identify it as a religious calendar, prescribing rites for specific days and gods across at least part of the year. It is unrelated in content to the Egyptian context in which it survived; the mummy wrapping is simply the accident of preservation that kept an Etruscan religious book from being lost entirely.
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