Invocation tablet (the so-call Large Amulet)
The bronze tablet from Mesopotamia (beginning of the 1st millennium BCE) is 13 cm high. The lion head of the Assyrian demon Pazuzu, who was feared as causing diseases but also could chase away other demons, peeks over the amulet’s upper edge. The top row shows the most important Mesopotamian deities with their symbols. The figures in the row beneath are wearing animal masks. They have a mediating function in the exorcism. The third row shows the exorcism procedure itself. The ill person is lying on a bed surrounded by figures in fish clothing; the are exercising a purification ritual. On the right, figures with lion masks are performing the actual exorcism. In the middle of the fourth row, the malicious demoness Lamashtu with lion head is nursing a piglet and a dog on her breasts. She rides an onager through the swamp (lowest row); the onager itself is standing on a two-headed snake. Lamashtu is an evil spirit believed to have caused the fever and illness of the person lying on the bed. To the left of Lamashtu appears Pazuzu again; with the help of the invocation he chases Lamashtu away and thus causes the healing of the sick person.
Lev 20:27; Num 5:19; 1 Sam 28:7, 28:8; Neh 13:25; Eccles 10:11; Ps 58:5; Isa 3:3; 8:19; 19:3; 47:9, 47:12; Jer 8:17
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