This Assyrian Incantation Bowl May Have More to Reveal
© The National Museum of Finland
Sometime around the sixth or seventh century CE, a certain Farrūkhdādh— son of Bāwaï and Shūshān —commissioned an incantation bowl to protect his household from curses, demons, and spirits. His name as well as those of his family were written in black ink on an unglazed clay bowl.
According to the spiralling incantation are calls to powerful intercessors to guard Farrūkhdādh and his household. The incantation reads:
“This amulet bowl is designated for the salvation and guarding of the house... against the sorceries and against all the magical practices and against all the messengers of the idol spirits and against the legions and against all the amulet spirits and the Ishtārs”.
Although this bowl was excavated in the Assyrian heartland, Farrūkhdādh’s name is clearly of Persian origin. For one, it’s a combination of the Persian names farrūkh “happiness” and dādh “founded”.
At first glance, one may assume that Farrūkhdādh was of Persian ancestry, belonging to the Zoroastrian faith. However, there are several clues on this bowl that may also point to Christian Assyrian origins, partially on his paternal side.
The name of his father, Bāwaï, is of purely Syriac origin, a dialect of Aramaic. In fact, the bowl is written in a fine Syriac script— the official literary and liturgical language employed by Christian Assyrians.
The use of a cruciform motif in the centre of the bowl as well as the identification of the protecting Lord as Yhwh implies that this was a Christian household. It should be noted that, such symbolism was not in use by adherents of the Zoroastrian faith.
“I decree unto you: every one who accepts Yhwh, attains good.”
Farrūkhdādh’s call for protection from the goddess Ishtār— a pre-Christian and local Assyrian deity —and not Anāhitā (her Persian counterpart) further compliments this connection. It should be noted that devotion to Ishtār declined in popularity a century prior to the commissioning of this bowl.
As far as his maternal side is concerned, we learn that Farrūkhdādh’s mother is named Shūshān, the daughter of Gūshnai; suggesting that the family may have been of Persian ancestry. Be this as it may, there is also room to speculate that the maternal side may have been of Jewish ancestry where such names were also in common use.
There is no doubt that Persian culture had a profound influence on various subject nations in the Persian Empire, Assyria included. In fact, not only did Assyrian scribes or learned men employ Persian as an official administrative language but some adopted Persian personal names as well.
© The National Museum of Finland
The use of such protective amulets, talismans, and incantation bowls, were widely common among Christian Assyrians to ward off evil spirits. These bowls were privately commissioned by individuals belonging to a household whose names were included in the incantation.
“The sins and the vows and the howlers and the worships and the spells, which are cursed and consumed and dissolved, go out, evaporate, and be expelled, flee and pass over...”
After having been prepared by a local scribe, the bowls were then buried beneath the client’s household to protect its occupants. The depositing of such protective artefacts or devices was a widely practiced tradition during the Neo-Assyrian period.
According to ancient tradition, the use of clay in the production of such protective devices may be equated with the clay of creation in Assyrian cosmogony. The burial of such artefacts may also reflect the Assyrian conception of the cosmos since many of the mythical beings depicted were believed to dwell underground, in the Netherworld.
If Farrūkhdādh’s bowl demonstrates anything, it is that earlier Indigenous Assyrian practices may have coexisted with Christianity for several centuries before they ultimately succumbed to the new faith. There is also room to speculate, albeit unconfirmable, that Farrūkhdādh may have belonged to an interracial family that was both Assyrian and Persian.
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This incantation bowl is made of rather coarse, light brown clay. Its diameter measures about 18.8-19.1 cm and that of the flat base 6.7 cm, the height is 8-8.5 cm, and the depth of sides 1.1 cm.
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Harviainen, T. (2015). A Syriac Incantation Bowl in the Finnish National Museum, Helsinki. A Specimen of Eastern Aramaic “koiné”. Studia Orientalia Electronica, 51, 30 p. Retrieved from https://journal.fi/store/article/view/49795
