Arslan Tash Amulet

Dated to the 7th century BCE, the Arslan Tash amulet (AT1) was discovered in Arslan Tash, Syria and contains the writing of Phoenician, magic incantations. The limestone plaque includes a variety of features: incantations perceived to prevent demons from entering the household; reliance on Assur, Baal, Horon, the pantheon, and Heaven and Earth to enforce the incantation; and an incantation as a sort of covenant. These elements of the incantation are parallel to other texts throughout the ancient Near East, many of which are not incantations or magic texts. In what follows, each of these aspects will be further described.