Ankara’dan Yayımlanmamış İki Sihirli Taş Amulet

Abstract

The recent synthesis of Roman-period amulets by C. A. Faraone has highlighted the signifi-cance of such artefacts in strategies of personal and group protection and healing throughout Greek and Roman antiquity. A specific group of such amulets, on semi-precious stones en-graved with images, intercultural words of power, and special signs, was created in late-Hellenistic Egypt, but spread into the eastern Mediterranean mainly in the Roman period. This paper publishes two such magical amulets, one in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the other in the Erimtan Museum of Archaeology and Art, both in Ankara. The first car-ries a fine example of the cock-headed Anguipede figure on the obverse, and, on the reverse, three of the Judaic names of God most commonly found on amulets in this tradition. The sec-ond gem offers no iconography but an interesting Greek inscription, followed by three special signs, appealing to the goddess Gaia (Earth) to protect the wearer. The paper has two main aims: to contribute to the aim of completing the digital Campbell Bonner Magical Gems data-base, organised by Á.M. Nagy in Budapest, which has taken the study of these gems to a new level, and to make these amuletic gems better known in Turkey.