Endnote 1 – Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull

Serious research into the magic in the Talmud goes back to Blau’s late-19th-century study of Jewish magic in the Talmud (L. Blau, Das altjüdische Zauberwesen (Jahresbericht der Landes-Rabbinerschule in Budapest für das Schuljar 1897–88) [Budapest, 1898]). And though Blau does not mention the bowls, the connection between them and the Talmud is already noted in some detail by Wohlstein who published a small number of bowls from the Berlin Museum (Jos. Wohlstein, “Uber einige aramäische Inschriftin aus Thongefässen des Königlichen Museums zu Berlin” Zeitscrift für Assyriologie 9 [1893], pp. 313–340 and Jos. Wohlstein, “Uber einige aramäische Inschriftin aus Thongefässen des Königlichen Museums zu Berlin” in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 9 [1894], pp. 34–41). Montgomery also notes the connection but could not realize the extent of it due to the very limited amount of material that was available to him at the time. With the publication of greater numbers of magic bowl texts by Cyrus Gordon, Joseph Naveh, Shaul Shaked, myself and others, the connections between the content of the material found in the bowls and that which is found in the Talmud has been realized in greater detail. The bowls are the practical application, the actual products of an aspect of culture and practice that are generously represented within the material of the Talmud.