Apparently there are some ancient documents which attest to Etruscan human sacrifice (writings of Callimachus particularly), but modern scholars debate it. If the bronze organs they found here really are anatomically accurate, that seems likely evidence of human sacrifice to me. Or at least, the artists were witness to some cadaver dissections.
Accurate knowledge of human anatomy in the modern era can be credited to the sometimes clandestine dissection of cadavers by doctors and other medical researchers, not the armies who merely chopped people up.
> Accurate knowledge of human anatomy in the modern era can be credited to the sometimes clandestine dissection of cadavers by doctors and other medical researchers, not the armies who merely chopped people up.
Sure, sure, but we're talking about fairly accurate sculptures (? I haven't looked yet) of organs from an earlier era, eh?
FWIW, the article claims the bronze organs were used as votive offerings. This seems like the sort of practice that may have evolved as a replacement to earlier human sacrifice, with real organs being removed and used as offerings, which would give those people the experience needed to create anatomically accurate sculptures of human organs.