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Originally posted on Living Textiles of Mexico:
Returning to Chiapas after two years, a NEW world class textile museum was waiting to be explored. The Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya is located in the Convento Santo Domingo in San Cristobal…
Magical Amulet research continues!
Preserved by the dry desert sands of Egypt, innumerable manuscript fragments written on parchment and papyrus have been discovered by archaeologists since the eighteenth century. Largely recovered from the rubbish heaps, these ancient documents provide a snapshot of what people were reading and writing, ranging from high literature (Homer’s Illiad) to mundane documents (tax receipts). The textual detritus of cities like Oxyrhynchus and Tebutnis reveals literary works and historical records previously unknown to modern scholarship and contributes to critical editions of texts from classical Greece and early Christianity. Even more fascinating, the intersection of textual study with material culture sheds light on how people interacted with texts, both in the form of complete books and in excerpted formats like citations on protective amulets. My current research focuses on understanding the way that Greek and Coptic amulets manipulated biblical text as a widespread way of accessing spiritual power. While some…
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The magic of the word…textual amulets
see, too:
Textual Amulet, France
It seems to figure that a lot of favorite medieval amulet-texts including Jesus, and a lot of healing sayings that essentially sound like pseudoepigrapha, are modelled on the devotion to the Letter of Abgar from the pilgrimage town of Edessa. There also seems to be quite a bit of interaction with private revelations, etc.
The sad thing is that a lot of these things would be common prayers and devotions one century, and would be denounced by the next. Of course, sometimes devotions really do go bad or overpopularity makes people go gaga for them. But there also seem to be a lot of cases where people…
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More “Curse Tablet” information:
A slow day on Planet Sumner today, which is why I was forced into reading the Daily Mail, where lo and behold, I uncover a story about an ancient “Defixion” or “curse tablet.” There have been defixiones before but this is particularly interesting because it was recently re-discovered after having been lost for a hundred years.
The Defixion in question seems to be a binding spell against an unfortunate chap called Psellus. Intriguingly, a feminine goddess appears to be invoked: the Italian scientist interviewed tentatively suggests that it might be Hecate.
Now I can think of one good reason why it might not be so: the female figure depicted on the Defixion has none of the known traditional symbolism. However, the Fluffy-Bunny Brigade have taken to the comments section denying that it is Hecate, because they can’t believe that she would ever curse anybody.
Sigh. It doesn’t take five minutes…
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Found in a jar along with an inscribed tablet, this Curse Doll is now at the Louvre.
Voodoo dolls were around even in ancient Greece. Above is an example of a Curse Doll. Called by the Greeks, the arms and legs were twisted behind the back, nails pierced them and a name was inscribed on it. The idea was to ask the gods to harm someone.
Curse Doll via Ancient Greek Curses
Similar to Curse Dolls in terms of intention are Curse Tablets.
Above is a Curse Tablet found in London. Inscription reads: “I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able.”
related links: Curse Tablets of Roman Britain + A Roman Lead Curse Tablet + Ancient Magic Curse Tablet Found in Jerusalem + Roman Curses Appear on Ancient Tablet + Roman ‘curse tablet‘ found in Kent
The Narrative Within 