Much of it is untranslated because of the lack of knowledge about the Etruscan language, though the words and phrases which can be understood indicate that the text is most likely a ritual calendar.

In 1848, Mihajlo Barić (1791–1859), a low ranking Croatian official in the Hungarian Royal Chancellery, resigned his post and embarked upon a tour of several countries, including Egypt.

Barić displayed the mummy at his home in Vienna, standing it upright in the corner of his sitting room.

At some point he removed the linen wrappings and put them on display in a separate glass case, though it seems he had never noticed the inscriptions or their importance.

The mummy remained on display at his home until his death in 1859, when it passed into possession of his brother Ilija, a priest in Slavonia.

Their catalogue described it as follows: The mummy and its wrappings were examined the same year by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch, who noticed the text, but believed them to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

He did not undertake any further research on the text, until 1877, when a chance conversation with Richard Burton about runes made him realise that the writing was not Egyptian.

They realised the text was potentially important, but wrongly concluded that it was a transliteration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead in the Arabic script.

[8] Certain local gods mentioned within the text allow the Liber Linteus's place of production to be narrowed to a small area in the southeast of Tuscany near Lake Trasimeno, where four major Etruscan cities were located: modern day Arezzo, Perugia, Chiusi and Cortona.

Though the Etruscan language is not fully understood, many words and phrases can be deciphered, enough to give us an indication of the subject matter.

Both dates and the names of gods are found throughout the text, giving the impression that the book is a religious calendar.

Such calendars are known from the Roman world, giving not only the dates of ceremonies and processions, but also the rituals and liturgies involved.

[12] The theory that this is a religious text is strengthened by recurring words and phrases that are surmised to have liturgical or dedicatory meanings.

[15] There are a variety of types of ritual (the general term for which seems to be eis-na/ ais-na literally "for the gods, divine (act)") described in the text.

The most frequently mentioned include vacl, probably "libation", usually of vinum "wine" (sometimes specifically "new wine") but also of oil faś and other liquids whose identities are unclear; nunθen "invoke" or possibly "offer (with an invokation)"; θez- probably "sacrifice" but possibly "to present" sacrifice(s) or offering(s) (fler(χva)) often of zusle(va) "piglet(s)" (or perhaps some other animal).

Offerings and sacrifices were placed: on the right and/or left hamΦeś leiveś (and variations thereof); on fire raχθ; on a stone (altar?)

may be devoted to describing a series of funereal rites connected to the Adonia festival ritually mourning the death of Aphrodite's lover Adonis.

A variety of types of priest, cepen, (but notably not civil authorities) are mentioned, but the exact distinctions between them are not completely clear: tutin "of the village"(?