There was a time when a “turn” seemed to indicate a groundbreaking “paradigmatical” shift in a science. These times are gone, and now “turns” are more like regular changes of perspective which help us to view our subjects from every possible angle.
This is particularly useful in the case of the “material turn” in the study of magic. Magic was traditionally treated as a matter of texts or, later on, as a matter of social practices; and even if we can assume that most experts knew the material side of their special subject, magic is treated by so many different sciences (philology, archaeology, history, etc.) that it is extremely important for scientists to compare notes and to inform their colleagues in different branches about the state of the art.
With this intention, the Morphomata International Center of Advanced Studies, Cologne—one of its two leaders is the classical archaeologist Dietrich Boschung—organized a conference in May 2012. Boschung and co-editor Jan N. Bremmer (Groningen) invited mostly scientists specialized, like themselves, in classical or late antiquity; but they deliberately looked further out for scientists who treat the times before and after this period. Bremmer wrote the preface to this collection, the articles of which mostly refer to lectures presented at the conference.
The articles follow a roughly chronological order, which means that a folklorist may best read the whole from back to front. Owen Davies (Hertfordshire), the rare social historian with a degree in archaeology, has published comprehensive overviews on magic and witchcraft; here he gives a useful overview on "deposits" which have been excavated or found in/at houses, partly concealed (like horse skulls under floors), partly displayed (like cats at barn doors). He combines this with the subject of house marks and written charms within houses; and even if his paper is based on the comprehensive work of Ralph Merrifield (1987) for England, he quotes reports from other European regions, too, and debates cross-national interpretations. These interpretations may shift from religious (sacrifice) via mere magical (dogs buried still work as protectors) to simply secular functions: timber marks are partly technical aids at different stages of the working process, horse skulls beneath floors have been deposited for acoustical uses, hawks nailed at barn doors may be apotropaic in the quite secular sense of deterring other birds, depositing old objects in new-built places helps to preserve identity (as do modern “time capsules”). Davies emphasizes the relevance of “object biography,” be it the object deposited or the building in itself, its foundation and destruction. As for the originators of the phenomena, he identifies three groups: mostly “cunning-folk” as specialists in magic, then carpenters and masons as specialists in house-building, and at last the inhabitants themselves.
The next historical layer would be studies about continuity or revitalization of ancient magic in more modern times. This layer is here only represented by Peter J. Forshaw (Amsterdam), who specializes in the revitalization of ancient magic in Renaissance/Baroque esotericism. Here he collects advice on how to use the occult qualities of particular materials in medicine as well as for the production of talismans and mirrors (from Ficino via Paracelsus to Heinrich Khunrat, a late representative of this tradition about whom Forshaw is going to publish a greater study). Veronique Dasen (Fribourg) is otherwise well known as an editor of books on cultural continuities and developments from antique to modern times; here she, alas, concentrates on the use of amulets in antiquity, but casts some interesting sidelong glances to modern superstitions.
As for the relation between materials and magic, Forshaw clearly defines a realm where the materials transfer their magical qualities to the product. There are a lot of other cases in which the material is hardly more than the accidental substrate to a magical form, design, or engraving. But Jan N. Bremmer himself explores the opposite direction: books where in the first place only the content had a religious/magical quality, but where this magical quality has been conferred on the material object afterwards. He treats this as a particular development in Christianity beginning in the late third century; but is he really right to assume that similar book awe or book adoration in Judaism is a later development (and as such perhaps inspired by Christianity)?
The bulk of this collection is concerned with special problems and subjects of antique magic, on the one hand, luck-bringing or protective objects like amulets and talismans (Jacco Dieleman, Veronique Dasen, Arpad M. Nagy, Jitse Dijkstra; and Annewies van der Hoek, Denis Feissel, and John J. Herrmann, Jr., who update an article published first in 1994); on the other hand, curse objects: tablets, beakers, and voodoo dolls (Jaime Curbari, Sergio Giannobile, Jürgen Blänsdorf). As for sculpture, only Laura Feldt has added a study on monster figurines buried beneath Mesopotamian houses, which in her opinion materialize the immaterial monsters as “minor deities,” not only warding off evil, but even securing good things. Richard L. Gordon's essay covers a wide field and emphasizes the inventiveness of the magical mind. Representatives of natural science and technology have only been included in one case (for an isotope analysis).
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[Review length: 851 words • Review posted on February 24, 2016]