The Iguvine tables, which constitute the most important epigraphic text in Ancient Italian History, are conserved in Gubbio, and more precisely, in the former Chapel in the Museum of Palazzo deiConsoli. Each one of the Tables is preserved in a sealed glass case. There is no doubt that Gubbio was one of the most important religious sites in Ancient Umbrian civilisation which was widely disseminated over an area comprising present-day Umbria and the Marches and reaching as far as Romagna. This barycentric position meant that the Umbrians had a particular advantage with regard to trade, the circulation of goods and materials and the transmission of ideologies and cultural models. The seven bronze Tables are fundamental to an understanding of how that society was organised at that time and, above all, to the deciphering of its language and system of writing. Scholars remind us that the Tables represent the longest ritual and liturgical text surviving from Ancient Italy and this distinction is unrivalled by any text whether in Greek or Latin. The story of their fortuitous discovery, most likely in the area of the Roman Theatre, can be traced to 1444, but the only reliable recorded document is the legal deed confirming the transfer of ownership of the seven Tables to the Commune dated 1456. Another unique feature of The Tables is that they reveal the use of two different alphabets, as both the Etruscan and the Latin scripts were employed to inscribe the underlying language of the Ancient Umbrians. Centuries of research have been dedicated to understanding the functioning of this Indo-European language and also to being able to define the meaning of a number of graphemes in the Etruscan alphabet by means of comparison with the corresponding word in Latin. The bronze Tables were inscribed at various times between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE but they undoubtedly reproduce much earlier content. They speak about ancient rituals celebrated by the Order of the Atiedii, who were considered as the father figures of the community, and had a precise role in its political and religious governance. Nine different rituals are described each of which was performed in three principal stages. The first was the Stipola, when the augur instructs the priest to obtain precise indications from the deity as to how the will of the gods will be revealed, whether by means of chanting or through the observation of flights of birds. This was followed by the Augurio or divination, during which the augur observed the flight of birds above the city in order to verify the auspicious disposition of the gods and finally, there was the Votive Ceremony consisting of blood sacrifices of animals, or offerings of agricultural produce not involving the shedding of blood. The three principal deities to whom the sacrificial rites were dedicated were Giove Padre (Jupiter the Father ), also called Fisio, consecrator and guarantor of the social pact, Mars, the god of Nature and War, and Uofiono, preserver of the race.
