A Corpus of Curses: Aggressive Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Faculty of Humanities
Abstract
The main aim of this application is to get the chance to bring to completion a major research output that is the product of the work of a number of years. This output is a monograph in which the corpus of all known Jewish Aramaic magic bowl incantation curse texts will be assembled, presented in scientific editions and discussed at length.
These texts belong to the Jews of late antique (c. 4th -7th century CE) Mesopotamia, geographically known today as Iraq, who constituted a large minority within the Persian Empire; estimated by some to have been as large as one million. This period is significant as it marks the end of a time of development that precedes the rise of Islam. Amongst the most significant documentary heritage of this period are the literary productions of the Jews, namely the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. These highly stylised compilations of sources gathered over a period of hundreds of years received their final editing only in the early medieval period. The other great source the Jews of this period have left us are the Hebrew and Aramaic amulets. From the Roman west but a few have survived, from the Persian east, however, we have a wealth of incantation literature; these are the Jewish Aramaic magic bowl incantation texts to which the collection of curses my study is dedicated to belong.
The considerable impact these texts are having on the study of the late antique near east is only now beginning to be appreciated as the wealth of content found in them and their importance for linguistic research is being realised. The slow, but steady, accumulation of reliable editions of these texts has now reached a stage whereby the varieties of its content (religious, linguistic, historic, folkloric, etc) and importance to scholarship can no longer be ignored.
To date most of the scholastic effort in this area has been directed at producing reliable text editions; an arduous labour as these texts are often long and elaborate and are written in dialects and scripts that are very difficult to decipher and only partially known. The priority has been to provide access to scholars of late antique history, religion, Semitic philology and anthropology. Secondary studies of the material are still in their infancy and are few in number. It is a matter of urgency that the editing of these texts be supported as it is by far the richest Jewish Aramaic source of manuscripts for this period - as opposed to other material that has survived only in manuscripts that have been edited and redacted hundreds of years later (such as the Talmuds).
The Jewish Aramaic magic bowl incantation texts, of which over a thousand are known to exist, are apotropaic - reputed to have the power of averting evil influence or ill luck. The evil influences they purport to rebut are overwhelmingly of a supernatural nature, yet there are a minority of texts in which a human origin to these ills is identified by name; essentially curses. A monograph that will include a reliable edition of all the known texts of a sub genre such as these curses, accompanied by a discussion of them affords a rare opportunity to study a defined and manageable group of texts. For the greater corpus of the few hundreds of published texts are harder to cope with as a group in their totality at this early stage of their research.
An AHRC Fellowship Scheme would allow me to complete an important monograph which will be a significant contribution to scholarship. It would also afford me the opportunity to build on a growing public interest in my research by producing a number of other outcomes aimed at wider audiences. These will include a popular introduction to the subject to be published on the website of the Virtual Magic Bowl Archive, a contribution to a museum catalogue and a series of lectures on the topic.
These texts belong to the Jews of late antique (c. 4th -7th century CE) Mesopotamia, geographically known today as Iraq, who constituted a large minority within the Persian Empire; estimated by some to have been as large as one million. This period is significant as it marks the end of a time of development that precedes the rise of Islam. Amongst the most significant documentary heritage of this period are the literary productions of the Jews, namely the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. These highly stylised compilations of sources gathered over a period of hundreds of years received their final editing only in the early medieval period. The other great source the Jews of this period have left us are the Hebrew and Aramaic amulets. From the Roman west but a few have survived, from the Persian east, however, we have a wealth of incantation literature; these are the Jewish Aramaic magic bowl incantation texts to which the collection of curses my study is dedicated to belong.
The considerable impact these texts are having on the study of the late antique near east is only now beginning to be appreciated as the wealth of content found in them and their importance for linguistic research is being realised. The slow, but steady, accumulation of reliable editions of these texts has now reached a stage whereby the varieties of its content (religious, linguistic, historic, folkloric, etc) and importance to scholarship can no longer be ignored.
To date most of the scholastic effort in this area has been directed at producing reliable text editions; an arduous labour as these texts are often long and elaborate and are written in dialects and scripts that are very difficult to decipher and only partially known. The priority has been to provide access to scholars of late antique history, religion, Semitic philology and anthropology. Secondary studies of the material are still in their infancy and are few in number. It is a matter of urgency that the editing of these texts be supported as it is by far the richest Jewish Aramaic source of manuscripts for this period - as opposed to other material that has survived only in manuscripts that have been edited and redacted hundreds of years later (such as the Talmuds).
The Jewish Aramaic magic bowl incantation texts, of which over a thousand are known to exist, are apotropaic - reputed to have the power of averting evil influence or ill luck. The evil influences they purport to rebut are overwhelmingly of a supernatural nature, yet there are a minority of texts in which a human origin to these ills is identified by name; essentially curses. A monograph that will include a reliable edition of all the known texts of a sub genre such as these curses, accompanied by a discussion of them affords a rare opportunity to study a defined and manageable group of texts. For the greater corpus of the few hundreds of published texts are harder to cope with as a group in their totality at this early stage of their research.
An AHRC Fellowship Scheme would allow me to complete an important monograph which will be a significant contribution to scholarship. It would also afford me the opportunity to build on a growing public interest in my research by producing a number of other outcomes aimed at wider audiences. These will include a popular introduction to the subject to be published on the website of the Virtual Magic Bowl Archive, a contribution to a museum catalogue and a series of lectures on the topic.
Planned Impact
Over the past years there has been a growing public interest in my research on Jewish Aramaic magical texts from late antiquity. The paragraph below shows the ways in which I have gained the attention of a variety of audiences. It is on this success that I intend to continue and build in achieving impact with the various outputs that I will produce during this Fellowship.
The foundation of the impact of my research is of course based upon academic publication (a volume and numerous articles) - this aspect of my output is what the main portion of my efforts are directed towards. Making an impact on the greater public, targeting and reaching different audiences has been an ongoing process that began some years ago. These efforts have been fruitful in that they have provided a platform upon which I can sustain and expand impact.
This process started with the publication of a popular article on the web (Levene, Dan, Curse or Blessing, What's in the Magic Bowl? The Ian Karten Lecture 2002, Parkes Institute Pamphlet No. 2 (http://www.soton.ac.uk/vmba/documents/curse_or_blessing.pdf)) and various contributios to museum exhibition catalogues (most recently: 'Jüdisch-aramäische zauberschalen aus Mesopotamien', in Babylon. Wahrheit, Eine Ausstellung des Vorderasiatischen Museums, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, mit Unterstützung der Staatsbibliothek Berlin (Ausstellungskatalog), ed. by Joachim Marzahn and Günther Schauerte (München: Hirmer, 2008), pp. 549-552) that stimulated significant public interest. Popular attention was further increased with the publication of an article that focused on my research in the very popular Biblical Arachaeology Review (c. 180000 subscriptions) (Shanks, H., 'Magic Incantation Bowls, Charms to Curse, to Cure and to Celebrate', in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33:1 (2007), 62-65). This was followed by a request for me to to pen a piece for the same journal ('Rare magic inscription on human skull', in Biblical Archaeology Review, 35:2 (2009), 46-50). Later that year I was interviewed by a reporter from the Israeli national paper Haaretz (Ilani, O., 'Ancient Jews used skulls in ceremonies despite ban', Haaretz, 2009) and mentioned in the Jewish Chronicle (Rocker, S., 'The demon trap getting historians all fired up').
I plan to build on this impact I have already achieved in four different ways:
1. Produce a monograph
2. Write a popular article for the Virtual Magic Bowl Archive website (http://www.soton.ac.uk/vmba/index.html)
3. Write a popular article for an exhibition catalogue I have been asked to contribute to by the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem
4. Give four public talks in major academic centres in the UK, Israel, Germany and the US
These outputs will target and reach academics as well as other interested public who attend public academic lectures, visit specialist websites and visit museums. It will also increase my contact and collaboration with both the Vorderasiatisches and Bible Land Museums.
The foundation of the impact of my research is of course based upon academic publication (a volume and numerous articles) - this aspect of my output is what the main portion of my efforts are directed towards. Making an impact on the greater public, targeting and reaching different audiences has been an ongoing process that began some years ago. These efforts have been fruitful in that they have provided a platform upon which I can sustain and expand impact.
This process started with the publication of a popular article on the web (Levene, Dan, Curse or Blessing, What's in the Magic Bowl? The Ian Karten Lecture 2002, Parkes Institute Pamphlet No. 2 (http://www.soton.ac.uk/vmba/documents/curse_or_blessing.pdf)) and various contributios to museum exhibition catalogues (most recently: 'Jüdisch-aramäische zauberschalen aus Mesopotamien', in Babylon. Wahrheit, Eine Ausstellung des Vorderasiatischen Museums, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, mit Unterstützung der Staatsbibliothek Berlin (Ausstellungskatalog), ed. by Joachim Marzahn and Günther Schauerte (München: Hirmer, 2008), pp. 549-552) that stimulated significant public interest. Popular attention was further increased with the publication of an article that focused on my research in the very popular Biblical Arachaeology Review (c. 180000 subscriptions) (Shanks, H., 'Magic Incantation Bowls, Charms to Curse, to Cure and to Celebrate', in Biblical Archaeology Review, 33:1 (2007), 62-65). This was followed by a request for me to to pen a piece for the same journal ('Rare magic inscription on human skull', in Biblical Archaeology Review, 35:2 (2009), 46-50). Later that year I was interviewed by a reporter from the Israeli national paper Haaretz (Ilani, O., 'Ancient Jews used skulls in ceremonies despite ban', Haaretz, 2009) and mentioned in the Jewish Chronicle (Rocker, S., 'The demon trap getting historians all fired up').
I plan to build on this impact I have already achieved in four different ways:
1. Produce a monograph
2. Write a popular article for the Virtual Magic Bowl Archive website (http://www.soton.ac.uk/vmba/index.html)
3. Write a popular article for an exhibition catalogue I have been asked to contribute to by the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem
4. Give four public talks in major academic centres in the UK, Israel, Germany and the US
These outputs will target and reach academics as well as other interested public who attend public academic lectures, visit specialist websites and visit museums. It will also increase my contact and collaboration with both the Vorderasiatisches and Bible Land Museums.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Dan Levene (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
| Description | Jewish Aramaic magical Babylonian incantations (JAMBI) from late antiquity are mostly protective, but for a small minority that are aggressive in tone and purpose. The monograph that I have produced in consequence of this grant offers text editions of all known aggressive texts that belong to this late antique genre of text. It also includes the first discussion of this, of for that matter any defined sub-genre of the JAMBI. |
| Exploitation Route | Scholars who are able to produce scientific editions of these kind of text are very few and so any such edition is a crucial addition to a growing scholarly community of historians, theologians and anthropologists. |
| Sectors | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |