Mandaic lead rolls


Mandaic lead rolls, sometimes also known as Mandaic amulets or sheets, are a specific term for a writing medium containing incantations in the Mandaic script incised onto lead sheets with a pin. Some Mandaic incantations are found on gold and silver sheets. They are rolled up and then inserted into a metal capsule with loops on it to be worn around the neck on a string or necklace.

History

These metal objects were produced by the Mandaeans, an ethnoreligious group, as protective talismans. Their inscribed texts are related to inscriptions written in ink on earthen ware bowls, the so-called Aramaic incantation bowls. The metal variants, however, can contain much longer texts and are often inscribed on several lead sheets with catch-lines to indicate the continuation of the text onto the next sheet. The lead rolls date to Late Antiquity with their textual forerunners going back to the Late Parthian period and originate from Iraq and Iran. Major established sites of finds are al-Qurnah, Kish, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, with the first to be discovered in graves 1853 by John George Taylor in Abu Shudhr just north of the Shatt al-Arab and copied by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. It was followed nearly sixty years later by the publication of an exemplary specimen in 1909. Most of the objects came and still come through illicit antiquities trade.

Mesopotamian heritage

Very specific for Mandaic lead rolls are magical stories created by learned Mandaean writers. These form a new text genre for Aramaic, which have a forerunner in the Aramaic Uruk incantation written in a very Late Babylonian cuneiform.
Such Mandaic magical texts often transmit insights on the afterlife and cults of Late Babylonian gods, goddesses, and deities of Iranian origin, as well as demons. A recently translated lead amulet was bought in Jerusalem.

Collections

Today, Mandaic lead rolls are held in various collections around the world, including the British Museum, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and Schøyen Collection.

Modern artefacts

In Ahvaz, Iran, there is a copy of the Mandaean Book of John with Mandaic text inscribed on lead plates. Originally belonging to Abdullah Khaffagi, it was seen by Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley in 1973.

Literature

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  • Franz Rosenthal. "Das Mandäische," in Die aramaistische Forschung seit Th. Nöldeke's Veröffentlichungen. Leiden, pp. 224–254.
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  • Christa Müller-Kessler. "A Charm against Demons of Time." In Cornelia Wunsch. Mining the Archives: Festschrift Christopher Walker on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday. Dresden, pp. 183–189.
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