Mandaic lead rolls explained

Mandaic lead rolls, sometimes also known as Mandaic amulets or sheets, which are related to Palestinian and Syrian metal amulets, are a specific term for a writing medium containing incantations in the Mandaic script incised onto lead sheets[1] with a pin.[2] [3] Some Mandaic incantations are found on gold and silver sheets.[4] [5] They are rolled up and then inserted into a metal capsule with loops on it to be worn around the neck on a string or necklace.[6] [5]

History

These metal objects were produced by the Mandaeans, an ethnoreligious group, as protective talismans. Their inscribed texts are related to inscriptions written in ink on earthen ware bowls, the so-called Aramaic incantation bowls. The metal variants, however, can contain much longer texts and are often inscribed on several lead sheets with catch-lines to indicate the continuation of the text onto the next sheet.[7] [8] The lead rolls date to Late Antiquity (3rd–5th centuries CE) with their textual forerunners going back to the Late Parthian period and originate from Iraq (Central and South Iraq) and Iran (Khuzestan). Major established sites of finds are al-Qurnah,[9] Kish,[10] Seleucia (Sittacene),[11] Ctesiphon,[12] with the first to be discovered in graves 1853 by John George Taylor[13] in Abu Shudhr north of the Shatt al-Arab and copied by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.[14] [15] It was followed nearly sixty years later by the publication of an exemplary specimen in 1909.[7] Most of the objects came and still come through illicit antiquities trade.[16]

Currently in the 21st century, researchers actively working on Mandaic lead rolls include Israeli philologists Matthew Morgenstern and Ohad Abudraham.[17]

Very specific for Mandaic lead rolls are magical stories created by learned Mandaean writers forming a new text genre for Aramaic (historiolas)[18] which have a forerunner in the Aramaic Uruk incantation written in a very Late Babylonian cuneiform .[19] [20] [21]

Such Mandaic magical texts often transmit insights on the afterlife and cults of Late Babylonian gods (Bēl, Birqa of Guzana, Nabu, Nerig/Nergal, Shamash, Sin), goddesses (Mullissu, Mammitu, Ishtar/Delibat = Δελεφατ), and deities of Iranian origin (Anahid, Danish/Danḥish,[22] Ispandarmid = Spenta Armaiti)[23] [24] [25] [26] [5] [27] as well as demons (Lilith, Dew, Shedu).[28] [29] A recently translated lead amulet was bought in Jerusalem.[30]

Modern artefacts

In Ahvaz, Iran, there is a copy of the Mandaean Book of John with Mandaic text inscribed on lead plates. Originally belonging to Abdullah Khaffagi, it was seen by Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley in 1973.[31]

Literature

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. There exist also one specimen of unknown provenance with an ink inscription written in an Aramaic script on lead, see Markham J. Geller, "More Magic Spells and Formulae: C. Babylonian Jewish_Aramaic amulet", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60 (1970), pp. 331–333, pl. III–IV.
  2. François Lenormant, Essai sur la propagation de l’alphabet phénicien dans l’ancien monde, vol. II (Paris, 1872), pls. X–XI.
  3. Christa Müller-Kessler, Mandäisch: Eine Zauberschale, in Hans Ulrich Steymans and Thomas Staubli (eds.), Von den Schriften zur (Heiligen) Schrift (Freiburg, CH: Bibel+Orient Museum, Stuttgart Katholisches Bibelwerk e.V., 2012), pp. 132–135.
  4. Christa Müller-Kessler, A Mandaic Gold Amulet in the British Museum, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 311, 1998, pp. 84–85, fig. 1–2 [hand drawing].
  5. Christa Müller-Kessler, Zauberschalen und ihre Umwelt. Ein Überblick über das Schreibmedium Zauberschale, in Jens Kamran, Rolf Schäfer, Markus Witte (eds.), Zauber und Magie im antiken Palästina und in seiner Umwelt (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 46; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017), p. 68, fig. 5.1 [hand drawing].
  6. Karlheinz Kessler, Das wahre Ende Babyloniens — Die Tradition der Aramäer, Mandäer, Juden und Manichäer, in Joachim Marzahn and Günther Schauerte (eds.), Babylon. Mythos und Wahrheit (München: Hirmer, 2008), p. 475, fig. 338.
  7. Mark Lidzbarski, Ein mandäisches Amulett, in Florilegium ou recueil de travaux d’érudition dédiés à Monsieur le Marquis Melchior de Vogüé (Paris, 1909), p. 358.
  8. Christa Müller-Kessler, A Charm against Demons of Time, in C. Wunsch (ed.), Mining the Archives: Festschrift Christopher Walker on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday (Babylonische Archive 1; Dresden, 2002), p. 184.
  9. Christa Müller-Kessler, A Mandaic Gold Amulet in the British Museum, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 311, 1998, p. 83.
  10. Peter R. S. Moorey, Kish Excavation 1923-1933 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 141.
  11. Francesco Franco, A Mandaic Lead Fragment from Tell Baruda (Coche), in Mesopotamia 17, 1982, 147-150.
  12. E. Kuhnel, Die Ausgrabungen der zweiten Ktesiphon-Expedition 1931/2 (Berlin, 1932).
  13. Terence C. Mitchell, Mr. Taylor. The Fourth Man in Baghdad, in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society 2003.
  14. Francis Dietrich, The Inscription of Abushadhr, Appendix apud Christian C.J. Bunsen, Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History, Applied to Language and Religion, 2 (London, 1874), pp. 360-374 [handcopy]; François Lenormant, Essai sur la propagation de l’alphabet phénicien dans l’ancien monde, vol. II (Paris, 1872), pls. X.
  15. Edmond Sollberger, Mr. Taylor in Chaldea, in Anatolien Studies 22, 1972, pp. 131– 134.
  16. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-archaeology-museum-antiquities-looting-a8996676.html Inside the hunt for Iraq’s looted treasures
  17. Web site: Morgenstern . Matthew . The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon . Mandaic texts . 2024-07-27.
  18. Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, Amulets and Magic Bowls. Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem, 1985), pp. 111–122.
  19. Christa Müller-Kessler, Die aramäische Beschwörung und ihre Rezeption in den mandäisch-magischen Texten am Beispiel ausgewählter aramäischer Beschwörungsformulare, in Rika Gyselen (ed.), Charmes et sortilèges, magie et magiciens (Res Orientales XIV; Louvain: Peeters, 2002), pp. 206-208
  20. Christa Müller-Kessler, Aramäische Beschwörungen und astronomische Omina in nachbabylonischer Zeit. Das Fortleben mesopotamischer Kultur im Vorderen Orient, in Johannes Renger (ed.), Babylon: Focus Mesopotamischer Geschichte, Wiege früher Gelehrsamkeit, Mythos in der Moderne (Colloquium der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 2; SDV: Berlin, 1999), pp. 433–434, 440–443 .
  21. Christa Müller-Kessler, Jüdische und gnostische Beschwörungen medizinischen Inhalts aus der Spätantike des Ostens, in Axel Karenberg and Christian Leitz (eds.), Heilkunde und Hochkultur II. “Magie und Medizin” und “Der alte Mensch” in den antiken Zivilisationen des Mittelmeerraumes (Naturwissenschaft – Philosophie – Geschichte 16; LIT: Münster, 2002), pp. 196–199.
  22. Christa Müller-Kessler, Dan(ḥ)iš – Gott und Dämon, in Joachim Marzahn and Hans Neumann (eds.), Assyriologica et Semitica. Festschrift für Joachim Oelsner anläßlich seines 65. Geburtstages (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 252; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2000), pp. 311–318.
  23. Mark Lidzbarski, Ein mandäisches Amulett, in Florilegium ou recueil de travaux d’érudition dédiés à Monsieur le Marquis Melchior de Vogüé (Paris, 1909), p. 350.
  24. Christa Kessler and Karlheinz Kessler, Zum Kult des Wettergottes von Guzānā, in A. Erkanal-Hayat (ed.), In Memoriam I. Metın Akyurt Bahattın devam ani kıtabi. Studies for Ancient Near Eastern Cultures (Istanbul, 1995), pp. 239–244.
  25. Christa Müller-Kessler and Karlheinz Kessler, Spätbabylonische Gottheiten in spätantiken mandäischen Texten, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 89, 1999, pp. 65-87.
  26. Christa Müller-Kessler, Interrelations between Mandaic Lead Rolls and Incantation Bowls, in Tzvi Abusch and Karel van der Toorn, Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical, and Interpretative Perspectives (Ancient Magic and Divination 1; Groningen: STYX, 1999), p. 208.
  27. Christa Müller-Kessler, Šamaš, Sîn (Sahra, Sira), Delibat (Ištar, al-‘Uzzā), und Kēwān (Kajjamānu) in den frühen mandäischen magischen Texten und bei ihren Nachbarn. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, ISIMU 20/21, 2017/2018, pp. 259–295.
  28. [Giuseppe Furlani]
  29. Christa Müller-Kessler, Lilith(s) in der aramäisch-magischen Literatur der Spätantike, Altorientalische Forschungen 28, 2001, pp. 338–352.
  30. Web site: Jarus. Owen. Magical amulet decoded. It protected owner from blood-sucking spirits. Live Science. 9 March 2021. 8 February 2022.
  31. Book: Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. 1800 Years of Encounters with Mandaeans. 2023. Piscataway, NJ. Gorgias Press. Gorgias Mandaean Studies. 5. 1935-441X. 978-1-4632-4132-2.

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