The female authorship of Babylonian Jewish incantation bowls

The general consensus in scholarly research is that rabbis, male scribes and male practitioners wrote the incantation bowls. However, a survey of the Jewish-Aramaic incantation bowls published thus far shows a majority of named female authors. This article will elaborate on five of them who wrote incantation bowls in a unique style. The female authors presented in their magical formulae ideas in a discourse which opposes the religious and cultural perception of the rabbinic milieu. Therefore searching the internal space of the Jewish community is not sufficient. Rather, it would be more fruitful to look for an answer to the question of who wrote the incantation bowls using a wider prism. We should, in this case, explore the society and culture of the Sasanian Empire in particular, and late antiquity in general.