Incantation Bowl with Inscription

In Late Antiquity, the population of southern Iraq believed in demons and took steps to protect themselves against them. People would go to a sorcerer, who would write the spell in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction in a spiral around the bowl. Sometimes, as in this example, there would be a demon drawn in the center of the bowl enclosed inside a circle. Sometimes the demons are chained. The bowl would be turned upside down after the recitation of the spell, thereby trapping the demon inside. Bowls have been found buried in houses and apparently would have also been buried in graveyards. The bowls are written in Aramaic-derived scripts that would have been used by Jews, Christians, and a related religious group, the Mandeans. It therefore gives us insight into the religious practices of minorities living under Sasanian and Islamic rule.