Incantation bowl

Produced in the Middle East during late antiquity from the sixth to eighth centuries, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria,[1] the bowls were usually inscribed in a spiral, beginning from the rim and moving toward the center.

Scholar John Charles Arnold states the bowls were used as such: "When placed upside down under each corner of a house, demons would follow the inscribed charms that spiraled from the outer rim inward, only to be caught in the center.

[4] To date only around 2000 incantation bowls have been registered as archaeological finds, but since they are widely dug up in the Middle East, there may be tens of thousands in the hands of private collectors and traders.

Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia are an important source for studying the everyday beliefs of Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians, and pagans on the eve of the early Muslim conquests.

The text on incantation bowls is the only written material documenting Jewish language and religion recovered from the period around the writing of the Babylonian Talmud.

Further research may delve into specific examples, deciphering the content of the inscriptions and exploring the cultural significance of these Christian incantation bowls within their historical context.

Mandaic-language incantation bowl
There is often a female figure at the center of the spiraling script.
Incantation bowl inscribed in Babylonian Aramaic , using Hebrew square-script , dated between 400 and 800, in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland .