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Two Incantation Bowls Inscribed in Syriac and Aramaic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Markham J. Geller
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Extract

The following incantation bowl from the Martin Bodmer Library, Geneva, contains an inscription in Syriac script consisting of 13 lines on the interior and one line on the exterior surface of the bowl. The inscription begins in the centre of the bowl, which contains an image of a snake with its tail in its mouth. The bowl measures 13·8 inches in diameter and 5·8 inches in height.

Type
Notes and Communications
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 422 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1976

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References

1 I am grateful to Professor J. B. Segal for his helpful comments on my discussion of this bowl, and to Professor Cyrus H. Gordon, who lent me his copy of the script and suggested improvements in my translation. I am also indebted to anonymous referees for improved readings of these texts, although responsibility for views expressed in this article is my own. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Fondation Martin Bodmer for the photograph and permission to publish the bowl, and to Mr. C. Maggs, of Maggs Brothers Ltd., London, for his photograph of the exterior of the bowl.

2 cf. C. Gordon, H., ‘Aramaic incantation bowls’, Orientalia, x, 1941, 353Google Scholar, in which he refers to this bowl as the Maggs Bowl; Hamilton, V., Syriac incantation bowls. (Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1971).Google Scholar Hamilton read 74 words in the bowl, not including the series of letters; I have read 140 words and revised some of Hamilton's readings.

3 I am indebted to Professor D. J. Wiseman for bringing this bowl to my attention, and for helping me obtain photographs.

4 of. AIT, p. 64, in which Montgomery describes this figure of the serpent as Egyptian in origin, described in the Book of Apep.