Magic bowl
In late antique magic shells is ceramic artifacts from the 5th-7th AD century, as they were often found in archaeological investigations in Mesopotamia and Iran .
They usually contain concentrically arranged incantation formulas written in ink in Aramaic and pictorial representations of demons, which are framed by the formulas and are intended to be banished by means of these formulas. Often it is Lilith figures who were blamed for child mortality.
These magic bowls are usually found buried with the opening facing down under the four corners or under the doorstep of a house. A magic bowl was often buried for each resident.
Typologically, this custom is possibly a pre-form of the Jewish mezuzah .
literature
- Christa Müller-Kessler: The magic bowl texts in the Hilprecht collection , Jena, and other Nippur texts from other collections . Wiesbaden 2005.
- Joseph Naveh, Shaul Shaked: Amulets and Magic Bowls. Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity . Leiden 1985.
- Joseph Naveh, Shaul Shaked: Magic Spells and Formulas. Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity . Jerusalem 1993.