Body and Mind, Husband and Household, Collaborators and Communities: Centrifugal Spheres of Protection in an Aramaic Incantation Bowl (MC 77.233)

Abstract

Abstract MC 77.233, an incantation bowl in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic script held in the Magnes Collection, is here published for the first time. Written primarily for Ḥammādā daughter of Xwārōy, it deepens and nuances our understanding of apotropaic activities in late antique Babylonia and surrounding regions, with terminology and phrases that are, at turns, typical and unique. Notable, too, are its combinations of, and allusions to, motifs that are elaborated with greater detail on other specimens. My discussion focuses on the role of both client and scribe in the bowl’s production, highlighting connections to bowls of other clients, to several well-attested formula repertoires, and to other Sasanian literary sources like the Babylonian Talmud. Throughout, I emphasize the opportunities for comparative analysis that are now available due to the increasing volume of bowl publications and recent scholarship on religious life, material culture, and interactions between Jews and others in late antique Mesopotamia.