“Not long ago, the well-known collector Shlomo Moussaieff acquired two earthenware bowls, the open ends of which were adjoined to form a kind of case—inside the case was an ancient human skull. A magic incantation, written in Aramaic, was inscribed on the skull.”
Talk about creepy. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
I wonder if it possible to tell whether the Aramaic inscription in the skull was done *before* or *after* the person died. Apparently you can tell with skulls – if the skull shows signs of healing after the Aramaic inscription, then it means he was alive when the inscription was done… Hopefully that wasn’t the case 🙂
Intereting post (and blog). you might find it interesting that the use of a skull for writing purposes was in use as late as the Medieval period among Jews. Bernard M. Baruch in his autobiography mentions an old family relic in the possesion of his grandfather “a skull on which was recorded the family geneaology”. See Baruch, Bernard. “My Own Story”, p.3.
As far as I am aware, the skull didn’t show any signs of healing, thankfully. 🙂
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A genealogical record? I find that fascinating if not morbid (but then again momento mori can come in all shapes and sizes and cultures). 🙂 I’ll have to take a look at that reference.
Peace,
-Steve