Archaeological explorations of magic and witchcraft in Iron Age Transylvania

CONTENTS FOREWORD Acknowledgements 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Archaeology of magic and witchcraft 1. 2. Magic and witchcraft, sorcerers and witches: short terminological observations 1. 3. The geographic, cultural and chronological framework 2. SORCERERS AND WITCHES 2. 1. Deceneus (Dekinais): “a man wizard (andra góeta) who wandered through Egypt” [Strabo VII. 3. 11 (C. 303)] 2. 2. The witch from Remetea Mare 2. 3. A female shaman of the Scythian age from Transylvania 3. SHAMANIC TRANCE AND THE ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 3. 1. Consumption of psychoactive plants 3. 2. Ritual consumption of alcoholic beverages and its instruments. Vessels with anthropomorphic handles from the Late Iron Age (4th–3rd centuries BC) in the eastern Carpathian Basin 4. OTHER MASTERS OF MAGIC: BESIDES WIZZARDS, ONE BLACKSMITH 4. 1. Craftsmanship and identity in the 4th–3rd centuries BC 4. 2. Metallurgy and magic 5. APOTROPAIA: PREVENTIVE MAGIC 5. 1. Physicians, healers and empirical cures 5. 1. 1. The g