Otium (Dec 2017)
Un fulgur conditum a Todi (Umbria)
Abstract
In 2010 a fulgur conditum, a burial of a lightning bolt was discovered in Todi (Umbria). This was a typical Italic ritual, linked to the Etruscan liturgy of the libri fulgurales. During this ritual the priests recited the expiation, that is they cleaned the site struck by the lightning bolt and they removed all traces of it, burying any objects that had been hit and damaged, fencing them and consecrating them to the divinity. In this case the excavation revealed a slab with an inscription (fulgur conditum) – which marked and covered the burial of the lightning bolt – resting on a well (puteal) in which the elements from the marble facing of a monument had been buried. The inscription’s characteristics and the collected materials date the find to the 2nd century AD.
