Mangum, Douglas. “Arslan Tash Amulets,” Lexham Bible Dictionary Dictionary,, edited by John D. Barry. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.
Two Northwest Semitic inscriptions made on limestone plaques acquired in Arslan Tash (ancient H adattu ) in northern Syria in 1933 (van Dijk, “Arslan Tash,” 65). The texts are written in an Aramaic script and likely date to the early seventh century BC (Cross and Saley, “Plaque,” 42). The small plaques, considered to be amulets because of the holes in the top, bear incantations against demons as well as bas-reliefs (i.e., carved images) depicting deities or demons (Vance, “Literary Sources,” 111–12). The inscriptions are of interest for the study of ancient Northwest Semitic languages and the study of religion in the ancient Near East. !
The amulets carry incantations meant to ward off night-demons such as Lilith. This type of incantation is attested in ancient Near Eastern culture over millennia. It is found among Jewish texts from the Second Temple period, including an Aramaic exorcism text found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (Penney and Wise, “Aramaic Incantation Formula,” 627–50), but the practice continued well into the first millennium AD, with Jewish Aramaic incantations found on bowls and amulets from the seventh century Shaked, Magic Bowls, AD (Naveh and Shaked, Magic Bowls, 9). These incantations illuminate aspects of the religious mindsets of people in the ancient Near East and the ancient Mediterranean from the Iron Age into Late Antiquity AD 700). (ca. 1200 BC – AD
The Arslan Tash amulets are quite small and likely were made for household use. The first amulet is 3.25 inches by 2.33 inches, and the second is 2 inches by 1.33 inches (Vance, “Literary Sources,” 112). The hole at the top of each amulet suggests that they were made to be hung on a door or wall. Gaster speculates that the first amulet was “intended to be hung in the room of a woman in childbirth,” interpreting the incantation as directed against the danger posed by “certain child-stealing demons” (“A Canaanite Magical Text,” 42.) The first plaque has three bas-reliefs, while the second has only one (Vance, “Literary Sources,” 112). The inscriptions cover the front, back, and edges of each amulet. The first amulet has 28 lines of text; the second has 13 lines. Imagery The larger amulet has three images: a sphinx and a wolf on the front, and a depiction of a figure on the back, likely representing a deity. One of the images on this amulet is of a wolf-like creature swallowing a small person, perhaps a child. The smaller amulet also has a picture of a creature swallowing a person. Such imagery is common on magical amulets of the ancient Near East—depicting the demon or a deity was designed “to scare, or even destroy, the demon by the sight of his own image, or that of a power superior to himself” (Gaster, “A Canaanite Magical Text,” 68). The imagery of the first amulet aligns with the text of the incantation, which addresses flying demons (!"#$, 'pt' )—like )—like the winged sphinx, the first image on the amulet—and the “Strangler” ( !"#$, chnqt ), ), an epithet for the childsnatching night-demon sometimes described as a wolf, like the second image on the amulet (Gaster, “Magical Inscription,” 186).
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Translation The first amulet is an incantation against child-stealing demons (Gaster, “A Canaanite Magical Text,” 42). This longer text has been studied the most and appears in the standard collections of ancient Near Eastern texts that relate to the Bible (see ANET 658; COS 2.86). An incantation against the Flyers, the goddesses (and against) SSM, son of PDR! , the god, and against the Strangler of Sheep: The house I enter you shall not enter, and the court I tread you shall not tread. Asshur has made an eternal covenant with us. He made [it] with us. So did all the sons of the gods, and the chiefs of the council of all the holy ones with a covenant of heaven and earth forever, by an oath of Baal, [l]ord of earth, by a covenant of " awron, whose mouth is pure and his seven concubines, and the eight wives of Baal-Qudsh. Against the Flyers, from the dark chamber: Pass by now, now, O Night-Demons! From my house (outside) to the streets, Go! As for SSM, may it (the house) not be open to him, and may he not come down to the doorposts. The sun has gone down against SSM. Disappear, and to the council fly away! (Adapted from Heiser, Hardy, and Otte, Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions.) The second amulet contains a shorter text, but its meaning is cryptic and obscure. Only a few brief studies of the text have appeared due to the difficulty of the inscription. Incantation against the Spatterer [of blood]: Baal has harnessed my chariot, and the Great-eyed one is with me. El ! YY has sent forth his fire on the fields, and the Open-eyed one is in the fields. Where is El ! YY, the holy one? I have fastened the bolt. Flee, caster of the evil eye! Keep your distance from the head of the one achieving understanding, from the head of him who dreams! For I have struck the eye fully; the eye of the orphan, your eye. My spells are according to the scroll. (Adapted from Heiser, Hardy, and Otte, Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions and Gibson, Semitic Inscriptions, 89–90.)
The inscriptions from Arslan Tash present both conceptual and textual parallels with the Old Testament. Both amulets begin with the Canaanite word for “incantation,” !"#$ (lchsht ). This term is known from Ugaritic texts, and a form of this word,
!#" "$ (lachash), appears several times in the Old Testament with
reference to magical incantations and amulets (Isa 3:3, 20; Jer 8:17; Eccl 10:11). The most striking conceptual parallel is found in the claim of the first plaque’s owner about having a covenant-style agreement with a number of deities including Asshur, Baal, and Horon (Gibson, Semitic Inscriptions, 79). Asshur was the national god of Assyria, while Baal and Horon were Canaanite gods. Horon was a Canaanite god of the underworld frequently invoked in curses and incantations (Rüterswörden, “Horon,” 425–26). This claim could reflect a covenant theology similar to that of the Old Testament, making it one of the few ancient Near Eastern examples where a deity is a treaty partner with a human (Lewis, “Identity,” 404–405).
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One of the more notable textual parallels is the reference to the “sons of god/gods” (bn #lm) as a collective designation for divine beings (line 11). This phrasing parallels the Old Testament references
% to the “sons of the gods” (!"#$&
"%')( , beney elim, Psa 29:1; !" #$%'& ($ ")* +,, beney ha'elohim, Gen 6:2; Job
1:6). In biblical literature and Canaanite inscriptions, these divine beings are depicted as members of the divine council (Seow, Job 1–21, 271–72). The first amulet also appears to refer to the Mesopotamian night-demon called Lilith (line 20). Mesopotamian texts (and later Jewish traditions) depicts Lilith as a “seductive succubus” (Baker, “Isaiah,” 119; see also Hutter, “Lilith,” 520– 21).
The inscriptions are unusual because the language is Phoenician but the writing uses an Aramaic script (Cross and Saley, “Plaque,” 42). The use of Phoenician is surprising since the population of the area was predominantly Aramaean (Avishur, Phoenician Inscriptions, 206). The spelling practices are inconsistent, sometimes following Aramaic practice and sometimes following Phoenician practice (Vance, “Literary Sources,” 112). For example, the typical Phoenician (and Hebrew) masculine plural noun ending is m, but the Aramaic masculine plural noun ending is n. Both appear to be used on the Arslan Tash amulets. However, n also is used as a plural noun-ending in Moabite, a Canaanite dialect otherwise closer to Hebrew and Phoenician than Aramaic (Gibson, Semitic Inscriptions, 80). This mixture of linguistic features has complicated the identification of the language of the inscriptions. It has become common to refer to the language of the Arslan Tash inscriptions as a “mixed dialect,” though it is usually classified as a Canaanite, rather than an Aramaic, dialect. With a magical text, it is possible that the language reflects an intentional blending of linguistic features, intended “to impart a ‘magical’ flavour to their texts and thus increase the potency of the incantations” (Gibson, Semitic Inscriptions, 80).
Various anomalies of language and iconography have raised suspicions that the artifacts could be fakes (see Amiet, “Observations,” 109; Teixidor, “Les tablettes,” 105). Amiet argues that the figure on the back of one amulet is a storm-god depicted without the characteristic thunderbolt, a glaring o mission for a genuine ancient artifact (“Observations,” 109). Teixidor thinks the condition of the tablets is too perfect, showing no signs of wear, and that the tablets are too light and must be casts (“Les tablettes,” 105). However, van Dijk points out that Amiet’s conclusion the figure is a storm-god is based on a limited set of comparative examples, noting there is actually some variation in how such figures are depicted (“Arslan Tash,” 66–67). Van Dijk also suggests that Teixidor overstates the pristine condition of the amulets based on photographs, and he notes Teixidor’s own descriptions of breaks and scratches in the inscriptions themselves (van Dijk, “Arslan Tash,” 68). Van Dijk’s analysis suggests the tablets are most likely authentic (“Arslan Tash,” 68). According to Frank Moore Cross, the tablets are genuine because “no one alive when they were found or earlier had the competence or materials to produce them” (Lewis, “Identity,” 409).
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Amiet, Pierre. “Observations sur les ‘Tablettes magiques’ d’Arslan Tash.” Aula Orientalis 1 (1983): 109. Avishur, Yitzhak. Phoenician Inscriptions and the Bible. Tel Aviv: Archaeological Center Publication, 2000. Baker, David W. “Isaiah.” Pages 2–227 in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel . Edited by John H. Walton. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. Cross, Frank Moore, Jr., and Richard J. Saley. “Phoenician Incantations on a Plaque of the Seventh Century B.C. from Arslan Tash in Upper Syria.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 197 (1970): 42–49. Dijk, Jacobus van. “The Authenticity of the Arslan Tash Amulets.” Iraq 54 (1992): 65–68. Gaster, Theodor H. “A Canaanite Magical Text.” Orientalia 11 (1942): 41–79. ———. “The Magical Inscription from Arslan Tash.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 6, no. 3 (1947): 186–88. Gibson, John C. L. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions. Vol. 3, Phoenician Inscriptions Including Inscriptions in the Mixed Dialect of Arslan Tash. Oxford: Clarendon, 1982. Heiser, Michael S., H. H. Hardy, and Charles Otte. Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions in English Translation. Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2008. Hutter, M. “Lilith.” In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst. Leiden: Brill, 1999. Lewis, Theodore J. “The Identity and Function of El/Baal Berith.” Journal of Biblical Literature 115, no. 3 (1996): 401–23. Naveh, Joseph, and Shaul Shaked. Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity. Third Edition. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1998. Penney, Douglas L., and Michael O. Wise. “By the Power of Beelzebub: An Aramaic Incantation Formula from Qumran (4Q560).” Journal of Biblical Literature 113 (1994): 627–50. Seow, C. L. Job 1–21: Interpretation and Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013. Teixidor, J. “Les tablettes d’Arslan Tash au Musée d’Alep.” Aula Orientalis 1 (1983): 105–108. Vance, Donald R. “Literary Sources for the History of Palestine and Syria: The Phoenician Inscriptions, Part Two.” Biblical Archaeologist 57, no. 2 (2001): 110–20. Rüterswörden, U. “Horon.” In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst. Leiden: Brill, 1999. DOUGLAS MANGUM
