It was on the island of Cyprus that the cult of the goddess Aphrodite arose. The first temple in Greece was erected here in her honor, around which the ancient city of Paphos grew up. Right in its center, on the main square, scientists made an unexpected find - an amulet of Christian times with a pagan text.
Archaeological research in Paphos is carried out under the auspices of the Polish Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University. Since 2011, Polish scientists have been running the so-called Paphos Agora project there. Their task was to identify the location of the main city square and characterize the buildings adjacent to it, in order to later deal with specific archaeological sites in more detail.
Excavation of an ancient city
Archaeologists were greatly helped by the unmanned aircraft used to survey the area, as well as acoustic and laser devices for scanning the earth's strata, which were provided by specialists from the Mining and Metallurgical Academy of Krakow. In general, they completed the drawing of structures on the plan by 2014, and in 2015 they began reconstruction of buildings and the infrastructure adjacent to the area.
Significant funds were allocated for the project, so Professor Eudoxia Papuci-Vlyadyka managed to equip an expedition from the university and for several years engage in excavations. In the course of the work, scientists discovered and attributed a large number of residential and public buildings, and also found many artifacts. So, in the eastern corner of the agora, a well was discovered with fragments of ceramics, ancient statues and other debris, including coins. Since the well was used as a cesspool from the 2nd century BC to the middle of the 1st century, an almost six-meter layer of ancient debris accumulated in it, which greatly pleased the archaeologists. All kinds of ceramic fragments were not found there - glazed, and unglazed, and with engobe made of liquid clay, and with a reddish silicate coating. Despite the technical difficulties (at a level of six meters, water unexpectedly went into the excavation), the scientists reached the mainland plate. The last few meters they worked, scooping out water with pumps.
And although the number of finds grew steadily year after year, the most unexpected discovery of Eudoxia Papuci-Vlyadyka was made at the very beginning of the research. In the summer of 2011, while working on the Paphos Agora, members of her expedition found an ancient amulet …
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Palindromes fashion
This thing, measuring 3.5 by 4.1 centimeters, is more than 1500 years old. It is made of baked clay, has several drawings on the front and a 59-letter text on the back. Both the text and the pictures are remarkable. The text consists of eight lines, contains 3 and 4 characters in the first and last lines, and 7-10 characters in the rest. Outwardly, it looks like this:
It translates approximately like this: "The lion Ra protects the bearer of the secret name of God in his own temple." The phrase is completely vague and incomprehensible, but it reads the same both from left to right and from right to left, that is, it is a classic palindrome.
The Paphos find dates back to a completely Christian time - the 5th century (and most likely even the 6th century). Behind is already a huge layer of Greco-Roman history. Western Rome fell. The Eastern was able to stay on the edge of the abyss and received another name - now it is the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. With Orthodoxy and the state Greek language. Cyprus will become part of Byzantium. But despite the active spread of Christianity, here, apparently, paganism and the new faith will coexist for centuries. And the Cypriots for a long time will not wear amulets with holy relics around their necks, but amulets against the evil eye, diseases and evil spirits. Exactly the same as wore thousands of years ago by superstitious pagans in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Great Rome.
For some reason, the palindrome texts are very fond of amulets makers. The most famous (and in completely Christian times) was considered the text of the 1st century - SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS, that is, "The sower of Arepo hardly holds the wheels." It was a kind of magic square of the Middle Ages. Christian pilgrims wore it as an amulet on their chests, the church fathers recommended it as a reliable remedy for evil, alchemists used it as one of the formulas in their art of transmutation, and spirit spellcasters came out to command the forces of darkness with a Christian prayer on their lips and the SATOR amulet on their chest. Extraordinary properties were attributed to this text. If you write it in a square with equal sides, then you can master the secret sciences, get a beloved, achieve wealth, defeat enemies, bring down a mountain, drain a river, become like angels. If you need to destroy the onewhom you hate, it is enough to write down this palindrome on paper, burn it, and scatter the ashes at the enemy's doorstep. Or just toss the unfortunate piece of paper to your ill-wisher. And if you wanted to use the text to your advantage, then you had to roll a piece of paper along with the church prosphora and swallow it.
Of course, there were also completely Christian palindromes. The following palindrome, niyon anomhmata mh monan oyin, was carved along the entire length of the rim on the font in the Constantinople Church of Sophia, that is, “wash your soul as well as your body”. This Christian text was supposed to protect Christians from sins and apostasy. And the patients who tried to plunge into this font thought that they would magically wash away the illness from themselves. According to legend, this phrase was invented by Gregory the Theologian in the 4th century. Since then, it has been immortalized in hundreds of springs and wells throughout Byzantium.
In general, upside-down texts became very popular in the first centuries of Christianity. Who just thought of them! And poets, and philosopher, and monks, and emperors. Both in Greek and Latin. An unknown master in Cyprus also made an amulet-palindrome for his customer.
Incarnate magic
The customer was clearly, if not a complete pagan, then a double faith. At the beginning of the palindrome a certain god is mentioned, which is written as "iawe", that is, most likely - Yahweh. Judaism in Cyprus was not widespread, so the name of God came from a Christian source. But the lion of Ra is clearly from the field of Egyptian magic. Moreover, the manufacturer of the amulet vaguely imagines this creature. And the pictures on the front of the magic object testify to this much more clearly than words. It depicts a funeral boat with the mummy of the god Osiris; above the boat on a three-legged stool sits the god of silence Harpocrates with a hand to his mouth. In the other hand he holds a scepter, a symbol of power; to the right of it - a star, to the left - a crescent; at the bottom right there is a kinocephalus, that is, a psoglavets - a creature with a human body and a dog's head, a variant of the Egyptian jackal god Anubis;on the left - a rooster, below, under the boat - a crocodile, on the right - a snake. Such is the set of characters depicted very schematically.
Scientists have not yet been able to understand what function each character performs. Harpocrates should actually sit not on a stool, but on a lotus petal, cinocephalus should raise his paws to the sky, and not repeat the gesture of Harpocrates, and both bodies should not have strange lines and lines symbolizing … bandages with which the mummies were swaddled.
Historians had to admit that the draftsman had absolutely no idea of what he was depicting, and had the most vague idea about Egypt and Egyptian magic. As, obviously, his customer, who bought the amulet and wore it around his neck.
Eudoxia Papuci-Vlyadyka, speaking about the poor awareness of the inhabitants of Cyprus in magical nuances, made the following conclusion: “Probably, Christianity and paganism coexisted in Paphos at the time when the talisman was made. This is evidenced by the mosaics at Theseus' villa, restored in the 7th century. As for the image on the amulet, it is rather clumsy and schematic, and although iconographically based on Egyptian sources, these sources were not fully understood by the creator of the talisman. Or rather, they are not fully understood. A few centuries ago, Greek masters would not have made such mistakes. What happened? It's simple - there has been a change of milestones. Faith in Christ came to Cyprus …
Mikhail ROMASHKO