The Aramaic Incantation Bowls: Jewish Society and Culture at a Crossroads

For the Public
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

Online
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The Aramaic Incantation Bowls were first discovered in the nineteenth century in archaeological digs led by the Penn Museum. Yet these fascinating objects are only now radically altering scholarly understandings of Babylonian Jewish society, interreligious contact and exchange in late antique Iraq, and the rising prominence of the rabbis. 

About the “Archaeology and Ancient Jewish Life” Series

The Katz Center is pleased to partner with the Penn Museum for this series of talks exploring the archaeology of the ancient Jewish world. From Babylonia to Jerusalem and back again, three speakers look at particular sets of objects and sites, contextualizing them and asking what they can tell us about the Jewish cultures that produced them.

 

About the image above: Bowl, Penn Museum B2965A. Babylonian Expedition to Nippur I-IV, 1888–1900.

Featuring

Simcha Gross

University of Pennsylvania

Simcha Gross is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and studies Jews over the first millennium of the common era in their Roman, Persian, and Islamic contexts. His first book, Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity, will be published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently a member at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

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Cosponsors

Cosponsored by the Penn Museum. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Klatt Family and the Harry Stern Family Foundation.