Ancient Amulets: Language and Artifact

Among the finds uncovered at Pergamon in the 1890s by the German archaeological team of Conze and Humann is a unique set of objects: three slices taken from two Neolithic stone hand axes, which bear nearly identical inscriptions composed of numinous characters and words of power. The magical nature of these inscriptions, dated on the basis of letter-forms to the 2^nd/3^rd c. CE, suggests that these axes were reinterpreted in the Roman Imperial period as amulets.

The study of ancient magical gems has in recent years been greatly augmented by efforts to publish some of the largest collections since Bonner (1950) and Delatte and Derchain (1964). The publication of the British Museum collection (Michel 2001), various Italian holdings (Mastrocinque 2003, 2007) and now the re-editing and publication of an expanded Paris collection (Mastrocinque 2013 forthcoming) are but the latest examples. Such abundance of data has also brought with it the challenge of applying traditional research techniques to such a large body of data.

Inscribed amulets from Syria-Palestine have been examined from many different angles, but they lack a comprehensive study. Two hundred and five published amulets from Syria-Palestine have been dated to the Roman and late antique periods, including both those with clear archaeological context and those with only reported provenance. Most common among these amulets are inscribed gemstones (128), followed by amuletic jewelry (45), and metal lamellae (32).

My paper investigates the use of opening lines and/or titles (incipits) of biblical texts on Greek and Coptic amulets from late antique Egypt. Drawing on insights from the ritual and scribal contexts of late antique Egypt and from cognitive linguistics, I challenge what has become a foundational assumption concerning this late antique ritual practice.