We’ve just posted our latest update to the Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects.
The update includes:
- 30 new manuscript entries, bringing the total to 988.
- These contain primarily Greek and/or Coptic magical texts from Egypt and other parts of the Roman Empire, but we are also now beginning to include two new categories of manuscript, arising from our collaborations with two outstanding researchers.
- The first of these are Aramaic incantation bowls, drawn from the Prosopographic Database of Magical Bowls produced by Ortal-Paz Saar as part of the project “Aramaic Magical Texts from Late Antiquity” (2009-2014) conducted by Dan Levene (University of Southampton) and Gideon Bohak (Tel Aviv University) and sponsored by the Britain–Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership (BIRAX). At present, the database only contains a single incantation bowl, but we will be gradually adding more in coming months and years.
- We are also beginning to add liturgical texts on papyri drawn from the checklist of Ágnes Mihálykó. The most recent of these is BKT VI 6.2, a hymn on the nativity.
- 2 new text entries, bringing the total to 167. The two texts we chose for this update are
- P. Heid. Inv. Kopt. 679, the only surviving Coptic magical text with a clear description of the use of the figurines pierced with nails often called “voodoo dolls”.
- P. Köln. XVII 636, one of only two surviving Coptic magical texts written on lead, a curse recently published by former project member Edward Love.
- These new texts include 3 new tracings of accompanying images, bringing the total to 40.
- 1 new archive entry, consisting of two curse tablets from Apamea in Syria, intended to bind the horses of an enemy chariot racing team.