Incantation bowl

Mandaic-languageincantation bowl

Incantation bowlsare a form ofprotective magicfound in what is nowIraqandIran.Produced in the Middle East duringlate antiquityfrom the sixth to eighth centuries, particularly inUpper MesopotamiaandSyria,the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral, beginning from the rim and moving toward the center. Most are inscribed inJewish Babylonian Aramaic.

Thebowlswere buried face down and were meant to capturedemons.They were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of the homes of the recently deceased and incemeteries.

The majority ofMesopotamia's population were eitherChristian,Manichaean,Mandaean,Jewish,or adherents of theancient Babylonian religion,all of whom spoke Aramaic dialects.Zoroastrianswho spokePersianalso lived here.MandaeansandJewseach used their own Aramaic variety, although very closely related. A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish and Christian magical practice (seeJewish magical papyrifor context). The majority of recovered incantation bowls were written in Jewish Aramaic. These are followed in frequency by theMandaic languageand thenSyriac.A handful of bowls have been discovered that were written inArabicor Persian. An estimated 10% of incantation bowls were not written in any real language butpseudo-script.They are thought to be forgeries by illiterate “scribes” and sold to illiterate clients. The bowls are thought to have been regularly commissioned across religious lines.

Archaeological finds

To date only around 2000 incantation bowls have been registered as archaeological finds, but since they are widely dug up in the Middle East, there may be tens of thousands in the hands of private collectors and traders. Aramaic incantation bowls fromSasanian Mesopotamiaare an important source for studying the everyday beliefs of Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians, and pagans on the eve of theearly Muslim conquests.

In Judaism

Incantation bowl inscribed inBabylonian Aramaic,usingHebrew square-script,dated between 400 and 800, in the collection of theJewish Museum of Switzerland.

A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish and Christian magical practice.Aramaic incantation bowls are an important source of knowledge about Jewish magical practices, particularly the nearly eighty surviving Jewish incantation bowls fromBabylonduring the rule by theSasanian Empire(226-636), primarily from the Jewish diaspora settlement inNippur.These bowls were used in magic to protect against evil influences such as theevil eye,Lilith,andBagdana.These bowls could be used by any member of the community, and almost every house excavated in the Jewish settlement inNippurhad such bowls buried in them.

The inscriptions often include scriptural quotes and quotes fromrabbinic texts.The text on incantation bowls is the only written material documenting Jewish language and religion recovered from the period around the writing of the BabylonianTalmud.Scholars say that the use of rabbinic texts demonstrates that they were considered to have supernatural power comparable to that of biblical quotes. The bowls often refer to themselves as "amulets" and the Talmud discusses the use of amulets and magic to drive away demons.

In Christianity

InChristianity,during the same period and in the sameregionwheretraditionalincantation bowls were prevalent,Christianincantation bowls emerged. Theseartifacts,often inscribed inSyriac,a dialect of theAramaiclanguage, demonstrate a syncretism of Christian and local magical beliefs. The inscriptions on these bowls typically includeprayers,psalms,or invocations forprotectionagainstevilforces. Scholars interpret them as a unique manifestation of the blending of Christian and folk religious practices in the ancient Middle East. Further research may delve into specific examples,decipheringthe content of the inscriptions and exploring the cultural significance of these Christian incantation bowls within their historical context.

In Mandaeism

Further information:Mandaic languageandMandaic Alpha bet

See also:Mandaic lead rolls

There are also many incantation bowls written inMandaic.

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  Bowl with incantation for Buktuya and household, c. 200-600 AD -Royal Ontario Museum
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  Bowl with incantation for Kuktan Pruk during her pregnancy, Southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum
• 
  Bowl with incantation to protect Anush Busai and his family against bad luck, southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum
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  Incantation bowl with Mandaic inscription
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  Incantation bowl with inscriptions in Mandaic, Mesopotamia
• 
  c. 5th-7th century, incantation bowl, 19x7.5 cm, 44 lines in cursive Mandaic script in 3 blocks at different angles radiating from the centre

See also

• Mandaic lead rolls
• List of Mandaic manuscripts
• Demons in Mandaeism
• Phaistos Disc

Further reading

• Bhayro, Siam, James Nathan Ford, Dan Levene, and Ortal-Paz Saar,Aramaic Magic Bowls in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin. Descriptive List and Edition of Selected Texts[Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 7], 2018.
• Ford, James Nathan andMatthew Morgenstern,Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Museum Collections. Volume One: TheFrau Professor HilprechtCollection of Babylonian Antiquities, Jena[Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 8], 2019.
• Gioia, Ted, "Healing songs", Format: Book, Electronic Resource 2006
• Gordon, Cyrus H. “Aramaic Incantation Bowls.”Orientalia,vol. 10, 1941, pp. 116–141.JSTOR,JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/43582631.
• Harari, Yuval, "Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbala", 2017.
• Juusola, Hannu, "Linguistic peculiarities in the Aramaic magic bowl texts", Format: Book, Electronic Resource, 1999.
• Levene, Dan, "A corpus of magic bowls: Incantation texts in Jewish Aramaic from late antiquity", format: Book, Electronic Resource, 2003.
• McCullough, William Stewart, "Jewish and Mandaean incantation bowls in the Royal Ontario Museum", 1967.
• Montgomery, James A., "Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur", 1913.
• Müller-Kessler, Christa, "Die Zauberschalentexte in der Hilprecht-Sammlung, Jena und weitere Nippur-Texte anderer Sammlungen", 2005.
• Naveh, Joseph and Shaked, Shaul, "Amulets and magic bowls: Aramaic incantations of late antiquity", 1985.
• Naveh, Joseph and Shaked, Shaul, “Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity", 1993.
• Kedar Dorit, Who wrote the Incantation Bowls? PhD Diss. (Freie Universität Berlin) 2018.

External links

• Translation of an incantation bowl
• Rare Magic Inscription on Human SkullBiblical Archaeology Review
• How Aggressive is Aramaic Aggressive Magic. A paper by PhD candidate Chaya-Vered Dürrschnabel