Roman Lead ‘Iao Abrasax’ Amulets: Magical Pendants, Rings, and Beads
Abstract
The practice of magic was widespread in the Graeco-Roman world. Traces are found abundantly, both in literary sources and in material culture. Particularly well-known and surviving in large numbers are the magical hardstone gems bearing esoteric inscriptions and a range of imaginative imagery. The majority of these were set into the bezels of rings and worn as pendants. The largest number of magical gems can be dated to the late 2nd to 4th centuries and they are provenanced to virtually every part of the Roman empire. A class of lead objects consisting of magical pendants, rings and beads has not received much attention, even though they are clearly related to the hardstone gems and were likely used as their substitutes. This paper and the catalogue below will serve to fill at least part of this lacuna. The catalogue distinguishes 110 different amulet moulds and records a corpus of 190 lead amulets.
References
Amorai-Stark, S. and M. Hershkovitz. 2016. Ancient Gems, Finger Rings and Seal Boxes from Caesarea Maritima: The Hendler Collection. Tel Aviv: Shay Hendler.
Boersema, G. 2019. A Dutch Collection of Late Antique and Early Christian Lead Seals. Studies in Byzantine Sigillography 13: 3-32.
Bohak, G. 2008. Ancient Jewish Magic. A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bonner, C. 1950. Studies in magical amulets, chiefly Graeco-Egyptian. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Cheynet, J.-C., T. Gökyildirim and V. Bulgurlu. 2012. Les sceaux byzantins du Musée archéologique d’Istanbul. Istanbul: İstanbul Araştırmaları Enstitüsü.
Comte de Caylus. 1752-1767. Recueil d’antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises. Paris: N.M. Tilliard.
Delatte, A. and Ph. Derchain. 1964. Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles et Antiques.
Dwiza, K. 2019. Magical Signs: An extraordinary phenomenon or just business as usual? – Analysing decoration patterns of magical gems, in K. Endreffy, Á. M. Nagy, and J. Spier (eds) Magical Gems In their Contexts. Proceedings of the International Workshop held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 16-18 February 2012: 59-84. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Engel, Arthur. 1884. Choix de tessères grecques en plomb. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 8: 1-21.
Giannobile, S. 2002. Medaglioni magico-devozionali della Sicilia tardoantica. Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 45: 170-201.
Gordon, R. 2011. ‘Signa nova et inaudita’: The Theory and Practice of Invented Signs (‘charaktêres’) in Graeco-Egyptian Magical Texts. MHNH: Revista internacional de investigación sobre magia y astrologia antiguas 11: 15-44.
Gordon, R. 2014. Charaktêres between Antiquity and Renaissance: Transmission and Re-invention, in V. Dasen and J.-M. Spieser (eds) Les savoirs magiques et leur transmission de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance: 253-300. Florence: Sismel, Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Laflı, E. and M. Buora. 2020. Three unpublished Byzantine lead seals from western Asia Minor (with an appendix on an amulet from Izmir.) Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Serija 4 Istorija Regionovedenie Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenija 25, No. 6: 160-167.
Mastrocinque, A. 2014. Les intailles magiques du département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques. Paris: Éditions de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Matantseva, T. 1994. Les amulettes byzantines contre le Mauvais Oeil du Cabinet des Médailles. Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 37: 110-121.
Michel, S. 2001a. Die Magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum. London: British Museum Press.
Michel, S. 2001b Bunte Steine – Dunkle Bilder: ‘Magische Gemmen.’ München: Biering und Brinkman.
Michel, S. 2004, Die Magischen Gemmen. Zu Bildern und Zauberformeln auf geschnittenen Steinen der Antike und Neuzeit (Studien aus dem Warburg-Haus, Band 7.) Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Mitchiner, M. 1986. Medieval Pilgrim & Secular Badges. London: Hawkins Publications. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2010- (CBd). Campbell Bonner Magical Gems Database, viewed 22 July 2022, <http://classics.mfab.hu/talismans>.
Nagy, Á. M. 2002. Figuring out the Anguipede (‘snake-legged god’) and his relation to Judaism. Journal of Roman Archaeology 15: 159-172.
Nagy, Á. M. 2011. Magical Gems and Classical Archaeology, in C. Entwistle and N. Adams (eds) Gems of Heaven’. Recent Research on Engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity c. AD 200–600: 75–81. London: The British Museum.
Nagy, Á. M. 2019. Figuring out the Anguipes, bis: A Statistical Overview, in K. Endreffy, Á. M. Nagy, and J. Spier (eds) Magical Gems In their Contexts. Proceedings of the International Workshop held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 16-18 February 2012: 179-215. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Nagy, Á. M. 2021. Daktylios Pharmakites. Magical Healing Gems and Rings in the Graeco-Roman World, in I. Csepregi and Ch. Burnett (eds), Ritual Healing. Magic, Ritual and Medical Therapy from Antiquity until the Early Modern Period. Florence: Sismel, Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Overbeck, M. 1995. Römische Bleimarken in der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München. München: Verlag der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München.
Rostowzew, M. and M. Prou. 1900. Catalogue des plombs de l’antiquité, du moyen âge et des temps modernes conservés au département des médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale. Paris: Rollin et Feuardent.
Schlumberger, G. 1892. Amulettes byzantins anciens destinés à combattre les maléfices et maladies. Revue des Études Grecques 5-17: 73-93.
Schwartz, F. M. and J. H. Schwartz. 1979. Engraved Gems in the Collection of the American Numismatic Society: 1. Ancient Magical Amulets. ANS Museum Notes 24: 149-197.
Sombroek, C.W. 1989. Een onderzoek naar een amulet in het Koninklijk Penningkabinet te Leiden. Unpublished thesis, Universiteit Leiden.
Spier, J. 1993. Medieval Byzantine Magical Amulets and Their Tradition. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 56: 25–62.
Spier, J. 2007. Late Antique and Early Christian Gems. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag.
Spier, J. 2014. An Antique Magical Book Used for Making Sixth-Century Byzantine Amulets?, in V. Dasen and J.-M. Spieser (eds) Les savoirs magiques et leur transmission de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance: 43-66. Florence: Sismel, Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Spier, J. 2019. Solomon and Asmodaios on Greco-Roman Magical Amulets and Rings, in K. Endreffy, Á. M. Nagy, and J. Spier (eds) Magical Gems In their Contexts. Proceedings of the International Workshop held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 16-18 February 2012: 259-269. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Steyert, A. 1895-1899, Nouvelle histoire de Lyon. Lyon: Bernoux et Cumin Editeurs.
Turcan, R. 1987, Nigra Moneta. Lyon: Diffusion de Boccard.
Vikan, G. 1984. Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38, Symposium on Byzantine Medicine: 65-86.
Vikan, G. 1991/1992. Two Byzantine Amuletic Armbands and the Group to Which They Belong. The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 49/50: 33-51.
Wamser, L. 2004, Die Welt von Byzanz - Europas östliches Erbe. München 2004: Ludwig Wamser.
