A Rediscovered Syriac Amulet from Turfan in the Collection of the Hermitage Museum

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Item ВДсэ-524 in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is an amulet scroll written in Syriac which was discovered by the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904–1905) and kept afterwards in the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für Völkerkunde) in Berlin. The artifact originates in the Turkic-speaking Christian milieu of the Turfan Oasis, probably from the Mongol period. The text, however, reflects a long tradition of magical literature that goes back to ancient Mesopotamia and can be categorised as a piece of apotropaic (protective) magic. The article contains an edition of the Syriac text with translation and a discussion of its place of discovery, its overall composition and specific words and expressions found in the text. The authors point out likely connections between the Hermitage amulet and the Turfan fragments SyrHT 274–276 kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin — Preußischer Kulturbesitz and briefly discuss its similarity with amulet H彩101 discovered in Qara Qoto by the 1983–1984 expedition of the Institute of Cultural Relics, Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.

About the authors

Mark Dickens

University of Groningen

Author for correspondence.
Email: dickens@ualberta.ca

PhD (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies), Visiting Researcher, Centre for East Asian Studies

Netherlands, Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26, 9712 EK Groningen

Natalia Smelova

University of Oslo

Email: natalia.smelova@teologi.uio.no
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1023-2943

PhD (History), Research Fellow, Faculty of Theology

Norway, Oslo

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2. Pl. 1. ВДсэ-524 (with line numbers). © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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3. Pl. 2. ВДсэ-524. Lines 1–13. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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4. Pl. 3. ВДсэ-524. Lines 14–26. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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5. Pl. 4. ВДсэ-524. Lines 27–39. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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6. Pl. 5. ВДсэ-524. Lines 40–52. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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7. Pl. 6. ВДсэ-524. Lines 53–65. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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8. Pl. 7. ВДсэ-524. Lines 66–78. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2017

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9. Pl. 8. SyrHT 274, 275, 276. © Depositum der BERLIN-BRANDENBURGISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN in der STAATSBIBLIOTHEK ZU BERLIN – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung

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