The ritual of the ancient Umbrians is the central moment of social life, essential for the success of human activities. The protagonists of the ritual are the augur, to whom is entrusted the interpretation of divine will through the observation of bird flight, and the officiant, who is in charge of conducting the ceremonies. The ritual is divided into three main phases: The stipulation, is the moment when the augur asks the officiant to stipulate with the deity that it manifests its will through song and the flight of particular birds. The augury, is the moment when the augur observes the flight of birds in the sky above the city in order to verify the favorable divine disposition for the ceremony to take place. The ceremony, the climax of which is the sacrifice. The offering to the deities can be bloody (with the killing of specially bred animals) or bloodless (with products from the fields without defects). Depending on whether one is addressing sky or earth deities, two different ritual procedures are observed. In the first case, the offering is consecrated on the table and the entrails of the animals are offered in the fire of the altar; in the second case, the offering is consecrated on the ground and the entrails are offered in the pit. The two most important ceremonies, present in both the Etruscan alphabet version and the Latin character version, are the Piaculum (Table I and VI) and the Lustratio (Table I, VI and VII). These are purification rites related to the city in the first case and to the army in the second.
