Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull

Biblical Archaeology Review 35:02 ^ | Mar/Apr 2009 | Dan Levene

[SunkenCiv]

Only five skulls inscribed with Jewish Aramaic magic incantation texts have come to light, none from professional excavations. Like the others before it, this skull, acquired by collector Shlomo Moussaieff, raises more questions than it answers. Its relationship to the more common genre of incantation bowls and its use in a rite of magic seem clear enough. But until more information emerges, basic questions -- how this skull was used, for whom, by whom and for what reason -- remain unanswered. [Ardon Bar Hama]
The Moussaieff incantation skull arrived in two earthenware bowls that form a container. The bowls themselves are not inscribed. It appears that the skull and bowls constituted a single ritual object, with the inscribed skull as the magical focal point. [Ardon Bar Hama]	"By Means Of A Skull." It is difficult to write on the idiosyncratic surface of a skull; reading a skull inscription can be equally difficult. Like the inscriptions on incantation bowls, the skull text is surrounded by a squiggly line. Although the inscription on the Moussaieff skull is very hard to decipher, one thing is clear: It contains names of people for whom the incantation was made. One of the names, Shilta, is derived from an Aramaic word meaning "after-birth." The skull itself was probably that of a woman. The exact manner in which this skull was used, however, remains a mystery. A contemporaneous source, the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 65b, offers a possible clue: "There are two kinds of necromancy: the one where the dead is raised by naming him, the other where he is invoked by means of a skull." [Andy Vowles]

[SunkenCiv]

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[dware]

neat

[blam]

Thanks. I cancelled my subscription to BA.

[mkmensinger]

That had to hurt.

[ForGod'sSake]

Hairoglyphs???

[SunkenCiv]

Hairoglyphs???

...and if the dead guy's name was Ken, we could say we read ken...

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. The article is bigger than those captions shown, but I wanted to use ‘em, and was having a aneurysm trying to get the three images to line up right, so I just said, well, something naughty, and did some resizing, cutting, pasting, and stuff.

[SunkenCiv]

The worst part is, the guy actually had the inscription done *before* he died — talk about taking the concept of tattooing way too far...

;’)

[Kackikat]

There is article online by a guy who became a 33rd degree Mason and during the banquet they drank wine out of old skulls....the man said two former Presidents were there...hmmmm.

[ChicagoHebrew]

Just to place this in context. This was not an authorized Jewish practice, ever. Rather, this was a pagan magical practice that some Jews succumbed to, although the Rabbis tried to quash it — and eventually succeeded in quashing it.

The quotations from the Talmud are not Jewish law. Rather, the Rabbis were simply reporting the kinds of nefarious behaviors that were practiced, but they condemned and tried to stop.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, as long as there’s no live monkeys and chopsticks involved, I’m cool.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"Only five skulls inscribed with Jewish Aramaic magic incantation texts have come to light"

Hairoglyphs???

---

This skulduggery and Skull-and-Bones stuff...

Like everything else...

it's...




Bushmen's fault!

(Sorry. A little.)


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[Daffynition]

Hair today ....gone .......

[tubebender]

This barely scrapes the surface...

[Slings and Arrows]

TRANSLATION: “His mother told him to become a doctor, but did his listen? Nooooo...”

[bigheadfred]

Keep this away from the O. He, or his cabal, needs no more tallymans to work his cabala.

This is not a reference to my tagline.

[Eleutheria5]

I think it contains bowling scores.

[Leo Carpathian]

Just older version of Blackberry, when you run out of paper...