3-037-070 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Magic Amulet inscribed with a Protective Prayer, A.D. 100-250. Additional Info: Lens-shaped agate of grayish colour, which has suffered chipping on both faces. Both sides convex. On the obverse, a variation of a common magical incantation, the name Ablanathanalba. The lower part is written in a ‘winged’-formation, known as pterygoma, whereby the word is repeated but with each repetition, the initial letter is omitted. On the reverse, a portion of the protective prayer for the amulet’s bearer, “Deliver Gaia from fever.” A proposed restoration of the complete text, based on related spells in magical papyri, runs “Deliver Gaia from the fever and also the ‘chills’, and from all her headache.”