Image and Word: Performative Ritual and Material Culture in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls

Abstract

The Aramaic incantation bowls used by Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, and others in Sassanian Babylonia, are earthenware bowls inscribed with incantations whose goal was to exorcise demons, cure illness, protect against evil spirits, and save oneself and one's children from Lilith and other demons. This chapter examines the images found on the bowls and their relation to the bowl texts and discusses why those who made the bowls and other amulets found it meaningful to use pictures and charakteres in conjunction with words. It focuses on two centers; the cultural framework in which these bowls, their texts, and their images, were created, and the reasons that those who wrote them, drew them, and used them considered them efficacious. The people responsible for inscribing the bowls, as well as those who used them, assumed the pragmatic function of both words and images. Keywords: Aramaic incantation bowls; charakteres ; Christians; cultural framework; Jews; Lilith; Mandaeans; Sassanian Babylonia; Zoroastrians