Featured Jewish amulets from Eastern Europe. Dissertation.

I came across this dissertation on Jewish amulets from Eastern Europe, and I thought some of you might be interested.
It was published by the university of Vienna, in German. But for those who don't read German the illustrations could still be interesting. They are in the second half, scroll down to page 225, or enter 225 in the page box.

http://othes.univie.ac.at/20072/1/2012-04-25_9952664.pdf

 

Recently saw this exhibition:

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/colmar-treasure-medieval-jewish-legacy

 

Gorgeous, Bronwen. Such a tragedy though.

 

Neat, i never knew what an "amulet" was until that 3500 year old amber bear crossed my radar screen a year or so ago, very cool objects.
3500 year old Amulet

 

The thing i find odd about these amulets, which is latin for good luck charm, some of them are thousands of years old and people still keep and use them today.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

People need things to assure them, give them a sense of protection in a confusing or dangerous world.
Many amulets have ancient roots, but were modified so they could still be used when authorities prohibited 'superstition'.

Below is my south German 'Tauftaler' or christening coin. In pre-Christian times Celtic peoples in the region nailed round metal pieces to their homes and stables for protection against evil. When the church forbade the use of these pagan amulets, they were transformed into religious medallions, some of which became Tauftaler. The Tauftaler was given to a child by its godmother, and kept in a special box, along with healing amulets etc, which the owner kept for the rest of his or her life.

Between 1750 and 1850 these Tauftaler were embellished with a filigree setting. The red beads and enamel are also believed to protect, red is the usual protective colour in Europe, Asia and North Africa.



The guardian angel protects and guides the child throughout its life:



Ca 1850 the local church prelates prohibited the use of the guardian angel on Tauftaler. They thought it too pagan. From then on Tauftaler had to have a christening themed image, like John the Baptist in the river Jordan.
Recently the angel has reappeared, but in a more 'cute' version.

 

The posture of this one suggests to me that there should be a spear in the right hand, so I see the Archangel St. Michael, slaying Evil. The tradition of putting coral beads on a small child or incorporating coral into a teething toy I understand was also meant to be protective. The red beads in your tauftaler reminded me.

 

Yes, it was.
In this case the beads are glass, no doubt from nearby Bohemia. For a long time commoners in the south German lands were not allowed to use gemstones. Gemstones meant power, so only aristocrats were allowed to use them.

 

I always thought it looked like this angel was pushing the child (soul?) off the clouds. Get ye down to that cesspool of sin!

 

This is a very interesting read, Brought to mind a custom in Ireland, When children were baptized usually between 1-3 weeks of age, they were presented with a coin usually a florin or half crown by their godparents, which was safely tucked away, Now I am wondering what happened to mine.

 

Hunh, my maternal grandfather, German and French, even though not very religious, had a small Czech rosary box filled with several different small religious medals (no rosary), that ended up passed to me - wonder if there was a bit of old tradition in that...

~Cheryl

 

There would be. Religious medals and rosaries are always a link to older, pre-Christian customs. Jesus never told his followers to carry medals or rosaries with them.
If you want to introduce a new religion to a region, you are most succesful if you make it acceptable to the locals by incorporating some old customs. Early Christian PR.

 

I've just reverted to a toddler as I can only look at the pictures!.
Waiting for my elderly ipad to load all those pages.
@Bronwen those are wonderful pieces of jewellery and hidden in such sad circumstances.

 

The Romans were masters at rolling in, overlaying/intermingling their deities with the locals. They just weren't so keen on new ones being introduced into Rome, especially not one that claimed to be the only right one.

 

Mithra(s) was certainly very useful to them.

Another method was used by the Incas. They 'kidnapped' deities of the regions they conquered, and the statues were held hostage so the regions wouldn't rebel.
Smart move, but it must have been heartbreaking to see your deity taken away after you had already lost your independence.

 

'We can enslave your god(s); just think what we could do to you!

 

Indeed, Romans were also big on incorporating local conquered people into the Roman system. If they refused or rebelled as the Jews did in Judea, the Romans were determined to wipe out the identity of Judea and simply renamed it Syria Palaestina.
Weird that a decision made 2 thousand years ago in Rome still has implications today.

 

Not just there, but that is the most tragic case.