Description
- Abstract:
- This dissertation concerns itself with Graeco-Egyptian uterine amulets, a type of medico-magical tool used to combat bodily suffering in the Eastern Roman Empire from the 1st-5th centuries AD. The accompanying catalogue has assembled the largest detailed corpus of these amulets to date, allowing for innovative approaches to be deployed on and new interpretations to be drawn from the data. The lack of archaeological context for all but one amulet in the corpus has hindered their study by modern scholars. The current work attempts to insert them back into relevant cultural spheres by connecting them to the medical, philosophical, magical and other amuletic traditions of the societies from which they evolved. By restoring such links larger questions can be broached about what purpose the amulets were intended to serve, how they may have been utilized and what they might be able to say about gender in the culture which created and used them. Major conclusions drawn include the fact that the amulets are not primarily concerned with fertility, that they depict the womb either as an enemy or as simply another bodily organ and that they can be used to comment on gender in the ancient world.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2010)
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
Marino, Katherine Rose,
"Setting the Womb in Its Place: Toward A Contextual Archaeology of Graeco-Egyptian Uterine Amulets"
(2010).
Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0N014RV
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Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Graduate Research department....