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749 Pages·2010·11.76 MB·English

Setting the Womb in Its Place:

Toward A Contextual Archaeology of
Graeco-Egyptian Uterine Amulets

By Katherine R. Marino

B.A., Yale University, 2004

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
In the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island

March 2010
© Copyright 2010 by Katherine R. Marino
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Curriculum Vitae

Katherine Marino was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1982. She
attended Brooks School in North Andover for High School. She earned a
B.A. in classical civilization from Yale University in 2004 and enrolled in
a Ph.D. program in the then Center for Old World Art and Archaeology at
Brown University. While a graduate student she published a review
article in the Journal of Roman Archaeology entitled “The Growing Field
of Garden Archaeology” in fall 2005. She has also contributed a piece on
an Etruscan fibula to the RISD Museum’s new catalogue and was the
second editor for the final publication for 2007’s Archaeology of College
Hill class, a book entitled “Churchyard Archaeology.” In 2008 she taught
The Archaeology of College Hill and was first editor on the final
publication entitled: “An Archaeology of College Hill.” In addition to
presenting numerous papers at graduate, national and international
conferences she co-organized TRAC: Ann Arbor in 2009. She earned a
MA in classics in spring 2010 from Brown.

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Preface and Acknowledgements

I am aching to get to work after the years of preparation. And I’m scared also, but I think that is
healthy. I have spent a great deal of money and even more time on this project. It is perfectly
natural that I should have a freezing humility considering the size of the job to do and the fact that
I have to do it all alone. There is no one to help me from now on. This is the writing job, the
loneliest work in the world. If I fail there is only one person in the world to blame, but I could do
with a small prayer from you and from any others who feel that this should be the best work of
my life and the most satisfying. Prayer is about the only help I can hope for now. Yours. And I
am now going into the darkness of my own mind.
John Steinbeck Letter to his Editor, July 7, 1958

While I would never dare to compare myself with the genius of John Steinbeck, reading this
passage in the Fall of 2009 as I attempted to finish my dissertation, his situation resonated with me. He
summed up many of the same feelings of fear and trepidation, of hope and isolation that I felt about my
own experience researching and writing this dissertation. I have been fortunate enough to have completed
it, unlike the project which Steinbeck writes about. Nevertheless, I readily admit that I would not have
been able to manage such an overwhelming task without a deep and hugely supportive network of friends
and advisors. There are too many people to whom I am indebted to acknowledge each by name, but I
would like to single out a few.
My core committee of Susan Alcock, John Bodel, Rene Nünlist and Veronika Grimm have had
infinite patience with me and for that I cannot thank them enough. My readers Natalie Kampen and
Rebecca Molholt generously offered (and with smiles!) to come on board this project at a late date and I am
sure that it will benefit enormously from their expertise. I offer them my heartfelt thanks.
On a more personal note my parents Laurie and Anthony have never waivered in their faith in me,
supporting and encouraging me to explore whatever made me happy. They believed I could do this (or
anything) even when I didn’t. Their belief in me provided me the motivation to finish when I wanted to
quit; I had to prove myself worthy of such love and encouragement. I could not have written this
dissertation without them. Finally I would like to specially thank V.G. and R. N. Without the
encouragement of former I would never have started graduate school, and without the friendship and
mentoring of the latter I would never have finished.
Despite all the help I received in writing this dissertation, any errors which remain, are, of course,
mine alone.
v
Table of Contents

Volume 1:

Title Page i
Copyright ii
Signature iii
CV iv
Preface and Acknowledgements v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables: ix
List of Figures: x
Blank Page xi

Chapter 1: The Nature of the Problem 12
Women’s Bodies 12
Introduction to the Amulets 13
Traditional Understanding of the Amulets and Thesis 17
Magic 22
Medicine 45
The Body and Gender 51
Outline of Chapters 58

Chapter 2: A Contextual Archaeology Without Archaeological Context? 64
Introduction 64
Stage One 66
Stage Two 69
Stage Three 74
Stage Four 85
Conclusions 86

Chapter 3: Words and Letters: What Do The Amulets Say For Themselves? 88
Introduction 88
Language and Style of the Amulets 89
Deities and Divine Figures on the Amulets 95
Longer Inscriptions 100
Magic Formulae 111
Conclusion 115

Chapter 4: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: The Iconography of the
Amulets 118
Introduction 118
Anthropomorphic Deities 120
Therianthropomorphic and Animal Deities 130
Ouroboros 139
Groupings of Deities 144
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Who is Absent? 147
Octopus Uterus 152
Notch Style 158
Conclusions 159

Chapter 5: Parallel and Intersecting Amuletic Traditions 161
Introduction 161
Parallel Traditions 162
Chnoubis 163
Ibis 167
Herakles 169
Reaper 172
Epi Podia & the Relationship of an Amulet’s Faces 174
Intersecting Traditions 177
Birth Amulets 178
Medusa / Ustera Amulets 183
Holy Rider / Solomon Amulets 189
Conclusions 193

Chapter 6: Binding, Cursing and Trampling: Major Magical Influences
on the Amulets 196
Introduction 196
Egyptian Magic 197
Fertility Magic 205
Greek Magic 208
Conclusions 220

Chapter 7: Medical and Philosophical Influences 223
Introduction 223
Egyptian Medicine 224
Papyri 224
Anatomy 228
Pathological Behaviours and Bleeding 229
Movement 234
Other Pathologies 234
Greek Medicine: The Hippocratics, Plato and Aristotle 240
The Hippocratics 240
The Gynaecologies 242
Anatomy 244
The Womb and Health 250
Opening and Closing 255
Pregnancy and Birth 256
Movement 260
Plato 264
Aristotle 267
The Hippocratics, Plato and Aristotle Summarized 270
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Herophilos Through Christianity 271
Roman Medicine 272
Soranus 275
Galen 279
Byzantine Medicine 282
Conclusions 283

Chapter 8: The Amulets as Material Culture: Logistical and Theoretical
Concerns in the Manufacture and Use of a Medico-Magical Instrument 285
Logistical Considerations 286
Creation and Activation 286
Methods of Engraving 289
Material 294
Lapidaries and Materials 297
Magical Mechanisms 310
Use 314
Theoretical Considerations 323
Things 323
Size 335
Technology 341
Identity 349
Coping and Charms 351
Conclusions 355

Chapter 9: Conclusions and Areas for Further Exploration 357
Gender 357
Final Interpretation 370
Areas for Further Exploration 374
Summation 376

Appendices: 378
A: Mormorotokoumbai 376
B: Aberrant Iconography 383
C: Triangular Amulets Misidentified as Uterine 383
D: Tantalos Amulets 385
E: The Uterus in the Papyri Graecae Magicae 392

Plates 399
Bibliography 410

Volume 2: 429
Introduction to the Catalogue 430
Catalogue Contents 438
Catalogue 441
Photo Credits for the Catalogue 725

viii
List of Tables:

Table 8.1: Minerals in Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica which affect the female reproductive system.

ix
List of Figures:

Figure Page Subject Source
Referenced
1.1 15 Uterine Amulet & Features Marino

1.2 52 A plate from Vesalius’ Tabulae Sex, 1538 Laqueur 1992
1.3 52 A plate from Georg Bartisch’s Kunstbuche, 1575 Laqueur 1992
1.4 52 Plate from Walter Ryff’s Anathomia, 1541 Laqueur 1992
1.5 52 Plate from Kaspar Bartholin’s Anatomy 1668. Laqueur 1992
2.1 69 Illustration from Gorlaeus’ Dactyliotheca, 1601 Michel 2001b
3.1 89 Curvilinear letter forms Marino
3.2 89 Rectilinear letter forms Marino
3.3 90 Alpha as lambda or delta Marino
3.4 90 Epsilon as lunate sigma Marino
3.5 90 Theta as omicron Marino
3.6 90 Theta as epsilon Marino
3.7 90 Kappa, beta and rho Marino
3.8 90 Gamma and tau Marino
3.9 90 Chi iota as zeta Marino
3.10 90 Upsilon forms Marino
4.1 120 Isis on the amulets Marino
4.2 120 Isis nursing Horus Wilkinson, 146
4.3 123 Nepthys on the amulets Marino
4.4 125 Osiris on the amulets Marino
4.5 126 Harpokrates on the amulets Marino
4.6 128 Bes on the amulets Marino
4.7 131 Chnoubis on the amulets Marino
4.8 133 Seth on the amulets Marino
4.9 136 Duamoutef on the amulets Marino
4.10 138 Khnoum on the amulets Marino
4.11 139 Ouroboros on the amulets Marino
4.12 140 Ouroboros on King Tut’s sarcophagus Piankoff and
Rambova 1955
4.13 152 Octopus uterus on the amulets Marino
4.14 152 Hieroglyph for light Majno
4.15 153 “Magic wand” of Seneb Pinch 1995
4.16 154 Byzantine amulet with Medusa Vikan
5.1 184 Byzantine Chnoubis arm-bands Vikan
5.2 184 Byzantine amulet with key Vikan
5.3 191 Solomon amulet with key Vikan
5.4 191 Amulet – next to a pencil eraser Marino
6.1 198 The Narmar palette Gardiner’s Art,
2003
6.2 204 Egyptian fertility figurine Pinch 1995
7.1 233 Hieroglyph for “birth” Ghalioungui
7.2 273 Votive uteri Marino
A1 387 Crescent from PGM LXII Betz 1992
A2 387 Crescent from PGM CXXIII Betz 1992
A3 387 Ostraka with birthing chair Schulman 1985
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