Amulets

28 Frankel Institue Annual 2018 The variety of amulets in Roman and late antique shapeshifting healing sickness Palestine was even greater than that showcased here, since no amulets written on organic materials such as papyrus, parchment, or leaves have survived. The black jasper gemstone shows, on its front side, a man bent over to reap grain. He has already cut the top off three stalks; three more remain to be harvested. He reaches out with a sickle in his right hand to cut the next two stalks of grain, which his left hand is poised to catch. On the back of the gemstone is an inscription in Greek, “[i]schiōn,” a Greek word that means “of the hips.” Amulets of this sort were carried by farmers who regularly suffered from severe hip and back pain caused by physical labor. In fact, the condition that we now call sciatica takes its name from the same word; it is not difficult to imagine how common this ailment must have been among agricultural workers MEGAN NUTZMAN such as the reaper pictured on the amulet. Amulets Only a little wider than a person’s thumb, there was no room on the black jasper for a lengthy inscription. In contrast, a silver scroll found in a tomb in Tiberias is a little longer than an empty toilet paper tube and roughly the width of a ping-pong ball. Scrolls of this hat do a black jasper gemstone, W a small silver scroll, and a bronze pendant have in common? All were intended to be worn on the body in order to heal or protect the wearer. These amulets gave material form to spoken prayers, transforming them into physical objects. By seeing the amulet, touching it, or even just feeling the weight of it on their bodies, wearers would be reminded of their petitions for a divine cure. Yet beyond this shared purpose, there is much diversity among ancient amulets. They used different languages and materials, and they were worn on the body in different ways. sort are called lamellae: the gold, silver, or bronze is flattened to make a thin writing surface, on which texts and images can be incised. Lamellae were rolled into a narrow tube and inserted into a case, which could then be worn on a cord around a person’s neck. The Aramaic text of the silver lamella from Tiberas begins: “An amulet proper for saving and healing Ina, daughter of Ze‘irti, from all hectic fever and illness and sickness.” This gives us the name of the person who wore the amulet, along with her mother’s name. It also tells us Ina wore the amulet because she had malaria, a disease that was widespread throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. 29 Frankel Institue Annual 2018 The text continues: “In the name of hw’ yzwt YH YH woman or girl. The Aramaic text, the quotation YH, that was written on his front plate which was from the Hebrew Bible, and the knowledge of the unrolled on the wreath of Aaron the High Priest high priest’s vestments situate this amulet within who was serving with it.” This passage refers to the the milieu of Palestinian Judaism. tradition that the high priest wore a band or diadem (S.îS.) over the turban that was part of his official vestments (Exodus 28:36–38). Engraved on the diadem was the phrase: “Holy to YHWH.” Not only does this amulet describe the high priest’s diadem, it also recreates the text found on it by repeating the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton The bronze pendant pictured here is between the first two amulets in size, with a height roughly equal to the width of a credit card. Its detailed images show, on the front, a holy rider spearing a fallen enemy, and on the back, an eye being attacked by spears, lions, a snake, a scorpion, and a stork. (yod and heh) and the word “holy” (qodeš). The first two letters of the Tetragrammaton are repeated three times in the above quotation, and another 70 times later in the text. The word “holy” appears a total of 12 times, with the words forming three sides of a box that enclose the last few lines of the amulet’s text. Picking up after the 70-fold YH, the amulet repeats the request that Ina be healed of her malaria by calling on “the name of YHWH who is enthroned among the cherubim. Amen, amen, selah. Blessed be he. ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob our refuge, Selah.’” This last sentence is a quote from Psalm 46, which the author uses as confirmation that God would answer this prayer for healing. With amulets written in Greek, it can be difficult to identify the religious or cultural tradition of the user. This is particularly true when the text is short, as it is with the black jasper seen above. However, the silver lamella from Tiberias can with some confidence be assigned to a Jewish Walters Art Museum A Greek inscription on the front says “One God who RICK BONNIE conquers evil” and in another place “IAW,” which is a Greek version of the Tetragrammaton. The back repeats the “one God” formula. Neither the text Water nor the images can definitively identify the owner of this amulet; the mounted rider could equally represent King Solomon or a Christian soldier-saint. Nevertheless, the purpose of this amulet as protection against the evil eye can be seen by the image on the back. D arkish grey clouds slowly start to block the clear blue sky. The first drops, still sparkling in the fading sunlight over the Galilee, fall down to the earth. What begins as a soft rain quickly becomes more intense. By carving a complete prayer or even just a few The rain is welcomingly received by grasses, trees, words onto an object, people were able to give and flowers. These are the first drops after a long and material form to their requests for healing. Whether hot summer, though with only four months without worn around the neck, carried in a pouch, or set actual rain this year’s summer feels remarkably into a ring, these amulets offered the wearers a short. There have been years when the dry season tangible reminder of their beliefs that divine lasted over seven months easily. Those years are intervention would cure them. ● much harsher for the people, animals, and plants the earth sustains, not least any ritual purification activity to be conducted. Some of the rainwater does not make it directly into the soil, but falls onto the leaves rain insects flat, plaster-lined roof of a village house. The first raindrops are quickly soaked up into the roof itself. Subsequent water, however, due to the slight angle crafted into the roof, slowly rolls down into the corners. With it comes windblown dust, sand, and leaves that—despite regular sweeping by the occupants—have gathered. Having reached the corner of the roof’s edge, the rainwater is channeled downward, either by a pipe feeding directly into a plaster-lined rectangular vat or a stepped pool, or by a downspout into the open courtyard of the house. The first batch of rainwater entering the house is filthy, as it still is mixed with roof debris, and thus does not end up directly in any of the larger bell-shaped cisterns in the house, which are essential for longer-term storage of water for drinking and cooking. Instead, this dirty roof water is, possibly, channeled into a plaster-lined