The Materiality of Magic

The Materiality of Magic is an exciting new book about an aspect of magic that is usually neglected. In the last two decades we have had many books and proceedings of conferences on the concept of magic itself as well as its history, formulas and incantations in antiquity, both in East and West. Much less attention, however, has been paid to the material that was used by the magicians for their conjuring activities. This is the first book of its kind that focuses on the material aspects of magic, such as amulets, drawings, figurines, gems, grimoires, rings, and voodoo dolls. The practice of magic required a specialist expertise that knew how to handle material such as lead, gold, stones, papyrus and terra cotta – material that sometimes was used for specific genres of magic. That is why we present in this well illustrated collection of studies new insights on the materiality of magic in antiquity by studying both the materials used for magic as well as the books in which the expertise was preserved. The main focus of the book is on antiquity, but we complement and contrast our material with examples ranging from the Ancient Near East, via early modern Europe, to the present time

Conférence de Mme Annewies Van den Hoek

Van den Hoek Annewies. Conférence de Mme Annewies Van den Hoek. In: École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses. Annuaire. Tome 99, 1990-1991. 1990. pp. 313-315

Conférence de Mme Annewies Van den Hoek

Van den Hoek Annewies. Conférence de Mme Annewies Van den Hoek. In: École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses. Annuaire. Tome 99, 1990-1991. 1990. pp. 313-315

Paul the Silentiary, Hagia Sophia, Onyx, Lydia, and Breccia Corallina

In 562 Paul the Silentiary described ten different types of colored stone on the walls of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Eight of them can be clearly identified optically, but two of them, “onyx” and “Lydian,” are problematic. “Onyx” is puzzling because Paul gives no geographic origin for it, as he does for the others, but this can be explained by the use of alabaster/banded travertine from a variety of sources. The “pale yellow with swirling red” stone from Lydia listed by the Silentiary has not previously been identified in the building, but it can be recognized in a group of breccia panels on the main piers; the panels are rather similar to marble from sources that have recently been identified on the Karaburun peninsula near Izmir. Paul surely refers to this peninsula as the source of the Lydian stone; his term for the promontory corresponds perfectly to the shape of the peninsula

Roman Monolithic Fountains and Thasian Marble

A group of four marble fountain spouts in a storeroom in the Vatican Museums appeared to be made of dolomitic marble from Thasos. Analysis of the marble with paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy confirmed this identification. In spite of differences, all four pieces seem to be produced by the same workshop, which can be called the Vatican Fountain Workshop. Examples of this type of fountain spout, which have water stairs on four sides and were intended to be placed in the center of a pool, are found scattered throughout the western Roman Empire. One example in Pula, Croatia is clearly a product of the Vatican workshop and appears to be made of Thasian marble. Most surviving monolithic fountain spouts appear to date from the second century, but the type clearly underwent a rapid development from simple to richly decorated forms during the course of the last third of the first century CE. The Vatican workshop evidently specialized in relatively simple cubic forms. Although the workshop favored Thasian marble and included at least one sculptor from Thasos, it was based in Rome. It also may have produced statues of the sleeping Ariadne in dolomitic Thasian marble for fountains

Calcitic Marble from Thasos in the North Adriatic Basin: Ravenna, Aquileia, and Milan

Macroscopic examination is used as a guide for selecting candidates for testing in a search for Thasian marble artifacts in the north Adriatic region. Five Roman and Early Byzantine artifacts could be sampled in Ravenna, Aquileia, and Milan: three sarcophagi, a pulpit, and a column shaft. Grain size was measured in some cases. Four of the five candidates clearly proved to be marble from Thasos, and the other seemed more likely to be Thasian than Proconnesian

Calcitic Marble from Thasos and Proconnesos in Nea Anchialos (Thessaly) and Thessaloniki (Macedonia)

Late Roman and Early Byzantine architectural elements from northern Greece are analyzed isotopically and under optical cathodoluminescence microscopy to determine their quarry of origin. Thirteen pieces come from Nea Anchialos, two from Thessaloniki, and one from Philippi. Marble is assigned to the quarries of Proconnesos, Thasos, and Philippi. On the basis of their marble, typology and style, the sculptures are attributed to sculptors from northern Greece or from Constantinople. The sculptors may have exported their works fully finished or carved them at the building sites in northern Greece. Sculptors from Constantinople clearly established workshops in northern Greece and made use of Thasian marble

Marble on Rome’s Southwestern Frontier: Thamugadi and Lambaesis

In spite of their location 200 km south of the Mediterranean and just to the north of the Aurès Mountains in eastern Algeria, the Roman cities of Thamugadi (Timgad) and Lambaesis (Lambèse/Tazoult) made substantial use of marble and high quality travertine (onyx marble). Forty-five architectural and sculptural artifacts were sampled to provide a cross-section of the sources used in the two nearby cities. White, grayish white, and colored artifacts were chosen. The samples were analyzed at the University of South Florida to determine mineralogy, grain size, and isotopic ratios of stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen. The results were compared with databases for quarries of Algeria and for the ancient Mediterranean at large. Because of isotopic overlappings, macroscopic observations of markings on the artifacts themselves were often important for establishing the most likely source for the marble