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Babylonian Prophylactic Figures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

C. Leonard Woolley
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Extract

Recent discoveries at Ur have thrown fresh light upon the Babylonian custom of burying beneath the floors of houses small figures intended to secure the houses and their occupants against sickness and evil spirits. There are texts giving instructions as to how such figures should be used, and examples of the figures themselves were already known, but now we have, to illustrate the texts, a far wider range of types and much more detailed information as to the manner of the actual ritual in connexion with them.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , October 1926 , pp. 689 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1926

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References

page 692 note 1 Birds, especially pigeons, had a prophylactic character. Koldewey found terra-cotta figures of pigeons with inscriptions in brick boxes below floors see Das, wiedererstehende Babylon, 4, p. 218–20.

page 693 note 1 For an apotropaic figure of a monkey or ape in the British Museum see Fig. 26. Perhaps the monkeys or apes on cylinder seals are also prophylactic, which would enhance the amuletic character of the seals.

page 707 note 1 For metal figures of bearded men wearing the horned cap see de Mecquenem in RA., xxi, p. 115, fig. 9; also RA., xix, pl. vi, for the same type in relief.

page 708 note 1 There is an instructive passage in Campbell Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, i, 153. “ Like the sherd that is cast aside by the potter, may they (the evil demons) be broken in the broad places.” The broken potsherd with these figures doubtless symbolises the destruction of the demons of sickness.