Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Roman Egypt, Cyprus, and Spain

Chapter 6 - The Archaeology of Magic

254 Chapter 6 The Archaeology of Magic The archaeological evidence of magical practice at three sites in the Roman Mediterranean—Karanis, Amathous, and Empúries—reveals the rich complexity and wide distribution of ritual activity. The case studies investigated in these pages offer vignettes situated in particular times and places, permitting us to characterize some of the features of the phenomenon at each settlement. It is clear from both the literary and archaeological record that magic, as we have defined the phenomenon, could take multiple forms and serve multiple purposes. Ritual practices may employ figurines in specific poses, lead tablets that have been inscribed with names, or household implements; these may be used to harm an enemy, avenge an injustice, protect the bearer of an object, or guard against the intrusion of vermin into a storeroom. In each local community , the analysis of written evidence and comparative material suggest the forms that magic may take. Egypt’s environment has preserved abundant papyrological resources and a wealth of artifacts that can be deployed to identify the material residue of magical acts in the archaeological record. The magical papyri, which detail ritual practices in the Late Antique period, suggest a framework within which magic could be recovered, even when inscribed text or other formal indicators of magic are absent. Once artifacts have been identified as magical, attention turned to the analysis of archaeological context and deposition. These data allow us to suggest the ritual processes that produced the artifacts as well as the effects that the objects were believed to have in the world. In the case of the roughly made figurine of the woman, for example, comparison with textual sources suggested that this object was used for erotic magic. These same sources were then studied alongside the doll, which had been burned and pierced, and the findspot, the accessible basement of a house. These data sug- The Archaeology of Magic 255 gested that the rite of burning and piercing was meant to compel the love of the target; the deposition of the figurine was intended to draw the victim to the commissioner, who lived above. Outside of Egypt, we lack data comparable to the PGM and PDM, but the methods that we developed for identifying and analyzing the Egyptian material are transportable to other regions and settlements. In these locales, objects may declare their use as components of ritual activity through an inscription. The physical form of the artifact and its archaeological context can provide vital information for reconstructing the function of magic in its local environment . At Amathous, this analysis provided insight into the production of magic. We suggested that multiple practitioners were at work at the site, all of whom shared a formulary and used the same space for the deposition of tablets. These individuals may have been associated with a temple or other religious community. The tablets were employed as a response to perceived injustices and were displayed in a shaft, even though they were not visible to other residents . Archaeological context at Empúries likewise pointed to the enactment of a ritual and suggested that the curse tablets were deposited as part of the burial of the dead. A close reading of the three cremations that contained the tablets suggests that magic was used as a means of resistance against imperial rule and that the deaths of the three individuals may have been tied to the use of magic. In each town or village, the investigation of archaeological data also suggested some of the problems that are encountered when dealing with material evidence. At this point, it is useful to return to the issues of method with which this book began. A Critique of the Method Chapter 1 outlined a method through which magical practice could be identified and interpreted within the archaeological record. An artifact may hold important information about its use in ritual, data that can be revealed through a consideration of the life history of the object. Moving outward from the individual object, the methodology stressed the importance of the close analysis of archaeological context, the interlocking spatial and temporal frames within which excavators unearth artifacts that can be associated with one another. Certain spaces—particularly areas associated with a victim, or liminal areas such as the grave or a crossroads—were significant in the ritual consumption 256 Materia Magica of magical artifacts. Considered in relation to their findspot, assemblages might be...