The “Apocryphal” Inscription from Mangup, Crimea, and Rituals of “Exposing the Thief”: Magic and Law from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Journal: Slovene
Year: 2015

The discovery of a Byzantine bread stamp inscribed with the text of Ps 29:8 in the ruins of Mangup Basilica in Crimea allows the authors of this article to revise the entire tradition of the Byzantine magical and folk “recipes” for revealing a thief; it is this context in which this verse is used in combination with a special bread. Prototypes of these recipes and procedures are attested in the late antique syncretic (pagan-Judeo-Christian) magical papyri, in which private persons are advised to