Extra Spicy

I have been thinking a great deal about the ancient practice of extispicy (not flavour of Popeye's chicken) and its relation to heathen religion. I have a few sources (primary and secondary) that mention the reading of entrails, but there is little operant information available. It seems to be a near universal practice, and cognate forms can be found amongst the Romans through the Etruscans. This ties it back to Western Anatolia for its genesis. Roman extispicy seems to have been more oriented to "yes/no" answers than the Etruscan, and usually involved the confirmation and/or suitability of sacrificial offerings. I read an interesting article on the Bronze Liver discovered in the later part of the 19th century, and the author has some really awesome ideas on how it ties together three forms of divination on one model (bird omens, lightning omens, and haruspicy). This is MOST intriguing because it may provide a frame work for the lost art of reading the birds. This is especially significant when you take into account my theories of Raetti influence on the Southern Germanic tribes and their Etruscan origins. Perhaps I am reading too much into such things, but it seems to "fit".