Amulet capsules & gold lamellae
Meaning
Thin sheets of gold, silver or lead (lamellae) were inscribed with spells, divine names and signs, then rolled up and kept in tubular cases. The words themselves were the amulet; the case kept them safe and close to the body.
Intent
Each lamella targeted a named problem, such as fever, epilepsy, eye disease, childbirth or migraine, or protected a named person. Worn at the neck, it kept the spell in constant contact with the wearer.
Significance
They are the direct ancestors of the Jewish kame'a, Christian phylactery, Islamic hirz and Ethiopian scroll-case. The Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls from Jerusalem (c. 600 BCE) carry the Priestly Blessing and are the oldest surviving biblical text.
History
Inscribed lamellae appear in the 7th–6th centuries BCE (Ketef Hinnom, Phoenician examples), and Greek 'Orphic' gold leaves guided the dead from the 4th century BCE. The Roman imperial period (1st–4th century CE) is the peak of healing lamellae.
Making yours
Capsules are 3–6 cm cylinders with end caps and suspension loops. Lamellae are 3–10 cm sheets of 0.1 mm gold foil, inscribed with a stylus and tightly rolled.Greece, Etruria & Rome: the tradition
Greeks called amulets periapta or phylakteria, 'things tied on' and 'protectors'; Romans said amuletum or ligatura. Both cultures feared the envious glance, baskania in Greek and invidia or fascinatio in Latin, and answered it with laughter, shock and the power of images: the Gorgon's face, the phallus, the crescent moon. Children, brides, soldiers and livestock were the most protected. Graeco-Egyptian magicians of the Roman Empire engraved gems and gold foils with divine names and signs, forming a written magic that passed to Byzantium, Islam and medieval Europe. Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 CE) records hundreds of amuletic stones, plants and animal parts, and became the source book for later lapidaries.
More from Greece, Etruria & Rome: Magical gems (Abraxas, Chnoubis) · Herakles knots & Sabazios hands
Every type in the gallery
Anything in the gallery can be made, by hand, in the prescribed metal or yours and, where the tradition names an hour, at that hour or with a plain note that it was not. Numbered. Price on commission, quoted first. I reply within one business day.