An incantation bowl, also known as a demon bowl, devil-trap bowl, or magic bowl, is a form of early
protective magic found in what is now
Iraq and
Iran. Produced in the Middle East during
late antiquity from the sixth to eighth centuries, particularly in
Upper Mesopotamia and
Syria, the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral, beginning from the rim and moving toward the center. Most are inscribed in
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.
The
bowl
A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...
s were buried face down and were meant to capture
demons. They were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of the homes of the recently deceased and in
cemeteries
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
.
The majority of
Mesopotamia's population were either
Christian,
Manichaean,
Mandaean,
Jewish or adherents of the
ancient Babylonian religion, all of whom spoke Aramaic dialects.
Zoroastrians who spoke
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
also lived here.
Mandaeans
Mandaeans ( ar, المندائيون ), also known as Mandaean Sabians ( ) or simply as Sabians ( ), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet. They ...
and
Jews each used their own Aramaic variety, although very closely related. A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish and Christian magical practice. (See
Jewish magical papyri
Jewish magical papyri are a subclass of papyri with specific Jewish magical uses, and which shed light on popular belief during the late Second Temple Period and after in Late Antiquity. A related category of contemporary evidence are Jewish magica ...
for context) The majority of recovered incantation bowls were written in Jewish Aramaic. These are followed in frequency by the
Mandaic language and then
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages ...
. A handful of bowls have been discovered that were written in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
or Persian. An estimated 10% of incantation bowls were not written in any real language but pseudo-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 from Sasanian Mesopotamia are an important source for studying the everyday beliefs of Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians and pagans on the eve of the
early Muslim conquests.
In Judaism
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 from
Babylon during the rule by the
Sasanian Empire (226-636), primarily from the Jewish diaspora settlement in
Nippur
Nippur ( Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian: ''Nibbur'') was an ancient Sumerian city. It wa ...
. These bowls were used in magic to protect against evil influences such as the
evil eye,
Lilith, and
Bagdana. These bowls could be used by any member of the community, and almost every house excavated in the Jewish settlement in
Nippur
Nippur ( Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian: ''Nibbur'') was an ancient Sumerian city. It wa ...
had such bowls buried in them.
The inscriptions often include scriptural quotes and quotes from
rabbinic 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 Babylonian
Talmud. 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
At the same period and in the same region, Christian incantation bowls are also found, often in Syriac, which is a dialect of the Aramaic language.
[Marco Moriggi, Syriac Magical Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia agical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 3 Leiden: Brill, 2014.]
In Mandaeism
There are also many incantation bowls written in
Mandaic.
File:Bowl with incantation for Buktuya and household, Mandean in Mandaic language and script, Southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09714.JPG, Bowl with incantation for Buktuya and household, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum
File:Bowl with incantation for Kuktan Pruk during her pregnancy, Mandean in Mandaic language and script, Southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09713.JPG, Bowl with incantation for Kuktan Pruk during her pregnancy, Southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum
File:Bowl with incantation to protect Anush Busai and his family against bad luck, Mandean in Mandaic language and script, southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09712.JPG, Bowl with incantation to protect Anush Busai and his family against bad luck, southern Mesopotamia, c. 200-600 AD - Royal Ontario Museum
File:Incantation bowl with Mandaic inscription MET me32 150 89.jpg, Incantation bowl with Mandaic inscription
File:Magical bowl with inscriptions in Mandaic, Mesopotamia. Wellcome M0003378.jpg, Incantation bowl with inscriptions in Mandaic, Mesopotamia
File:Mandaic.jpg, 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 Mandaean texts
This article contains a list of Mandaean texts (Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic). Well-known texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā'') and the '' Qolastā''. Texts for Mandaean priests includ ...
*
Demons in Mandaeism
In Mandaeism, various beings inhabit the World of Darkness.
Types
According to the ''Right Ginza'', the World of Darkness consists of many demons, dewis, and evil spirits, including:
The ''Right Ginza'' describes them as:
Demons in the ''G ...
References
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''
agical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 7 2018.
* Ford, James Nathan and
Matthew Morgenstern
Matthew Morgenstern, also known as Moshe Morgenstern ( he, משה מורגנשטרן; born 1968 in London, United Kingdom), is an Israeli linguist and religious studies scholar known for his work on Eastern Aramaic languages, especially Mandaic. H ...
, ''Aramaic Incantation Bowls in Museum Collections. Volume One: The
Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities, Jena''
agical 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, www.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 bowlRare Magic Inscription on Human SkullBiblical Archaeology Review
How Aggressive is Aramaic Aggressive Magic. A paper by PhD candidate Chaya-Vered Dürrschnabel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Incantation Bowls
Demons in Judaism
*
Iranian pottery
Magic items
Medieval Upper Mesopotamia
Objects believed to protect from evil
Syrian pottery
Language and mysticism
Mandaean texts
Aramaic texts