incantation bowl
- Museum number
- 103358
- Description
-
Pottery incantation bowl: flat-based bowl with simple rim and convex wall; wheel-thrown; inscribed in spiral from centre outwards. Mandaic text. This incantation partly follows Standard inscription B. The client is Miriam daughter of Madanosh; her spouse is Yuhanan, the name of his mother is not given; repaired.
- Production date
- 6thC-8thC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 16.90 centimetres
-
Depth: 7 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Segal's edition has been critically reviewed, hence see Ford 2002 for corrections.
Segal writes concerning the reference to 'lady Miriam': this name has a Hebrew form as the usual Mandaean form is Miriai. The client's spouse may also have been Jewish. The significance of the term 'lady' is uncertain; Miriam certainly seems, from the tenor of the text, to have been more important than her spouse. Like Miriam, the name Yuhanan has a Jewish form; the form among Mandaeans is Yuhana. Note that the names in line 13 are most likely to be interpreted now as magical names.
The text refers to the doorway of the client and how the demon is being issued with the equivalent of a bill of divorce and that the bowl was buried in the threshold to prevent its entrance. It is one of seven Mandaic examples in this collection to refer to the threshold, implying this was where each had originally been interred: BM 91748, 91769, 91775, 91777, 103358, 108824, 138177.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Fair; repaired.
- Acquisition date
- 1911
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 103358
- Registration number
- 1911,0408.48
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 099M (siglum)