Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity

edited by Angelika Berlejung and Gideon Bohak

Book cover: Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity

Extent: 323 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Religious Studies

Series: Orientalische Religionen in der Antike

Series volume number: 57

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(August 2024)

ISBN: 9783161635496

9.45 x 6.65 inches

Price: $174.00

In stock

Amulets which contain mostly texts bear witness to the fears and dangers against which they were supposed to help. For ancient man, they were a means of overcoming fear and communicating with supernatural powers. They are valuable sources that can be used for the study of religious history, historical anthropology, and interreligious research.


Amulets are devices for fear management and communication with supernatural forces. Textual amulets – that is, amulets which contain mostly texts – attest explicitly to human fears, or threats which were supposed to be repelled by the amulets. They are valuable sources which can be analyzed for the study of the history of religion, historical anthropology, and interreligious research. The contributions in this current volume are based on the research project “Between Materiality and Scribal Magic: West-Semitic Textual Amulets from the First Millennium BCE to the Rise of Islam”. Within this project, teams from Leipzig University and Tel Aviv University studied textual amulets from the Levant in the 1st mill. BCE and CE that were written in the West-Semitic languages. Several scholars were invited to discuss and share their expertise within the scope of this research project. The present volume is the result of this interdisciplinary and international cooperation.

  • Edited by Angelika Berlejung
  • Edited by Gideon Bohak