Material: Black obsidian (between 5-6 on the Mohs scale)
Date: 2nd century A.D. (estimated)
Dimensions: H: 3.68 cm × W. 2.83 cm x Th. 0.995 cm
Findspot: unknown
Current Location: Private collection Derek Content
This is an incredibly crafted ancient magic gem inscribed with a comprehensive invocation for healing and salvation. The creator of the text states that “I summon you in foreign languages”. This reminds of an invocation preserved in the Greek ritual manual PGM XII, 261-266, in which the practitioner emphasises that they call upon the higher power in four different languages plus in the language of the “arch-priests”:
I invoke you like (the) Egyptians: Phnô Eai Iabôk; like (the) Jews: Adônaie Sabaôth; like (the) Greeks: King of all, who alone rules (over all); and like the arch-priests: Hidden, Invisible, Guardian of all; like (the) Parthians: Ouertô, Ruler of all: Consecrate (and) empower for me this deed for the whole and glorious time of my life!
Indeed, the part of the invocation engraved on the front side and on the back side of the gem is mostly indecipherable for us today. But in opposite to this, the inscription on the beveled edge is written in Greek and can be entirely translated:
[I c]all upon you, O [loft]y-throned, immortal, all-c[rafter] of the universe ruling [over creatio]n, to provide complete [salvatio]n for me, having composed your talisman which I created for you, [and to hold in check any] over-[powering force] and every evil, ma[levolent] spirit and every evil thing happening to me. I summon you in fore[ign langua]ges to provide both health and salvation to m[e who carr]ies (this).”
Translation by Roy Kotansky (see below), p. 262.
The gem measures just H: 3.68 cm × W. 2.83 cm but it was inscribed with 22 lines in Greek on the larger side and 19 lines on the smaller one! The letters are less than 1.5 mm high! The invocation on the edge comprises four lines.
Imagine how much effort it took to plan the inscription and then to engrave these hundreds of letters! I wonder if the engraver was short-sighted or had a looking glass at hand.
Due to copyright I cannot post a photo of the gem here but there are five very good photos from all sides on the website of the Cambell Bonner Magical Gems Database: http://cbd.mfab.hu/cbd/4419/
The gem was published by Roy Kotansky, An Invocation on an Obsidian Gem With Hermeneutical Glosses, in: LeMuséon 132 (3-4) (2019), pp. 259-290.
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