Faculty & Contact

The Magical Female: Women and Magic in Jewish and Christian Communities of Late Antiquity

There has been much research directed toward women and magic in the Middle Ages, however studies focusing on women and magic in the first few centuries of the Common Era tend to be rare. Dr. Murray’s research concentrates on the important, yet largely neglected area of women and magic in Jewish and Christian communities of late antiquity. She focuses on the regions of Syria-Palestine and western Asia Minor during the first four centuries of the Common Era, areas that were home to Jewish communities and early Christian churches. Her project will explore literary evidence and archaeological realia (incantations, curse tablets, amulets and inscriptions) pertaining to magical practices in these geographical areas.

“The Magical Female” project studies two main issues: the ideology about women and the practice of magic, and the actual practice of magic by women. The ideology will address questions such as:

• What did Jewish and Christian writers write and think about women’s relationship to ritual power?
• What stereotypes of women are reflected in these sources?
• Were women understood to practice magic differently than men?
• What types of women are described as engaging in magic?

The actual practice of magic by women will address questions such as:

• How did some women employ ritual practices to gain power?
• What types of magical rituals are associated with females?
• What does material culture, such as curse tablets and amulets, reveal about women’s participation in such rituals?

Dr. Murray’s objective is to advance knowledge on the broad topic of religion and magic in late antiquity, and to contribute to the more specific area of women’s religious and ritual practices in early Christianity and post-biblical Judaism.

Nabatean Private Cults

Dr. Murray and Mohammad Dashan (a Bedouin), Dr. Murray’s current research project brings together her interest in investigating literary evidence and archaeological realia for insight into ancient religious practice. Scholarly attention has been drawn of late to the importance of studying adaptive religious structures in the Roman world, particularly evidence reflecting architectural modification of the private home for cultic use. Analysis of the various stages of renovation of ancient buildings imparts important social evidence regarding the status and circumstances of religious communities. Dr. Murray’s goal is to explore the religious activities of ancient Nabatean people; more specifically, she wishes to examine whether a large Nabatean housing complex, recently unearthed at Wadi Ath-Thamad, Jordan, reflects evidence of architectural renovation for cultic purposes.

In the first century CE, the Nabateans, a Semitic tribespeople, controlled more than 1000 sites throughout the Mediterranean, particularly dominating the trade routes of the Arabian Peninsula. They were a wealthy people who secured the sources and markets or the profitable frankincense and myrrh trade and added to this spices, gems, balsams, bitumen, and, eventually, even the China silk trade. Petra, located in modern-day Jordan, was their urban capital. This strikingly beautiful city contained an oversized theatre, public bath, temples, and more than 800 rock-carved funerary monuments.

This project entails both textual analysis and the study of archaeological data. For the textual analysis, Dr. Murray will investigate Roman, Jewish, and Christian sources from the Late Antiquity for information regarding Nabatean religious practices. The archaeological component of the project requires that Dr. Murray gather all available excavation reports on Nabatean communities and, centrally to the project, participate in the Canadian-led archaeological excavation at Wadi Ath-Thamad, Jordan.