Potsherd Incantation from Ḥorvat Rimmon

Written on a potsherd in the fifth or sixth century CE, this Palestinian amulet was found in the excavations at Ḥorvat Rimmon, in southern Judaea. The incantation is meant to cause the desired lover’s heart to burn with passion by directly tying the medium of burning clay to the desired lover’s heart in a ritual of sympathetic magic. Hundreds of years later, this technique continued to be practiced, as is attested in a number of texts from the Cairo Geniza.