Religion and the Aramaic Incantation Bowls

Abstract

The corpus of Late Antique Aramaic incantation texts is defined. The issues in this field are identified as explicating the language of the Aramaic dialects used for these texts, correlating the religious identity of their authors with the dialects and the scripts used for them, the level of the authors’ literacy, and explaining the magic praxis of the bowls and their demonology. The pagan, Judaic, Mandaean, Christian, and Zoroastrian content of these texts is surveyed. It is noted that the nature of this content tends to be explained in terms of syncretism and popular religion.