Nils H. Korsvoll: Liturgy in ancient amulets - a part of the conversation

Scholars have typically understood liturgical phrases and topics in ancient amulets as identity markers or as legitimizing borrowings from public ritual. Recent revisions, however, both in liturgical studies and when it comes to amulets, challenge this unilateral interpretation. Building on these insights, I use a selection of examples to show how amulets in fact appear to be a part of the negotiations and development of liturgy. This observation is not only important for the study of ancient amulets, placing them within the wider developments of ritually efficacious language in antiquity, but also for expanding the scope and relevant source material for the study of early liturgy.