Dan Levene

Research Interests

Magic, Aramaic, Syriac, Geez, Hebrew, Ethiopia, art, medicine, ethnography.

Description of the project

Mersha and Dan will be working on a joint project as well as smaller, relevant, personal ones. The description of the collaborative project is as follows.

Ethiopian magic is represented in the production of a limited number of editions of relevant texts that have been produced over the years. Yet, the study of these materials as a textual genre and cultural phenomenon, in line with other work done on the likes of (for instance) Jewish, ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian magic has barely been touched upon. It is time to make a start.

During our stay in Würzurg we will take it upon ourselves to choose a selection of Ethiopian types of magical texts, including manuals, recipe books and amulets. We will spend a number of hours daily reading these together. Our aim is to gather notes regarding structure, content and purpose; assess the relation of these materials to other areas of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian literature; consider the relation of these magical texts to other forms of better studied magical literary cultures (e.g. Jewish Syriac, etc.); consider these texts in line with the points laid out for this phase of MagEIA; and, finally, note any relevant living traditions related to the use of these texts in Ethiopia.

Curriculum Vitae

Affiliation

University of Southampton	Visiting Scholar at Cancer Sciences	09/2000 to date
THENA (THET Ethiopia NCD Alliance)	Founder member & Steering Committee	2017 to date
Past position(s)
University College London	Curator of the Schøyen and Moussaieff Magic Bowl Collections at UCL (P/T). These two collections consist of approximately 800 late antique to early medieval manuscripts.	1996-2001
University College London	Senior Researcher/project manager/fund raiser of ‘Metals in the Jewish sources’. Timna Museum Project Coordinator.	1996-2000
‘Benin Bronze’ fine-art lostwax bronze casting foundry.	Proprietor.	1989-1991
Education
University College London	PhD in Semitics at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies	10/1996 to 10/2000
University College London	BA (Hons) in Ancient Egyptian and Semitic Languages at the Dept. of Hebrew and Jewish Studies	10/1992 to 06/1996
Byam Shaw School of Art, London	BA in Fine Art	10/1984 to 06/1987

Academic roles

Since 2017	Committee member of THENA (THET Ethiopia NCD Alliance (https://www.thena -ethiopia.org/))
Since 2012	Member of the editorial board of the Brill Series Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity
2010 – 14	Member of the Peer Review College of the AHRC
Since 2007	Creator of the Virtual Magic Bowl Archive and current committee member (http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/theology/research/projects/vmba/)
2002 – 12	Committee member of the British Association of Jewish Studies
2003-2013	A member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Archaeometallurgical Studies at UCL.
Since 2000	Member of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations
Fellowships
2010 – 2011 (9 months)	AHRC Fellowship (open call) titled: A Corpus of Curses: Aggressive Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity
2006 (Jan – Aug)	Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel
2000 – 2006	Honorary Research Fellow at the Hebrew and Jewish Studies department at UCL, London, UK

Specialist language skills

Hebrew	Biblical, Mishnaic, Medieval and Modern
Aramaic	Imperial Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic, Late Aramaic dialects: Jewish Aramaic (Standard literary, Babylonian and Palestinain), Syriac and Mandaic
Old Ethiopic	Ge’ez
Egyptian	Ancient and Middle
Amharic	Intermediate

Publications

Books

Levene, D. and Phillips. eds. (in press). Healing in Ethiopia: Exploring the Interface Between Medicine and Faith. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press.
Levene, D., Bhayro, S., Ford, J. N., Saar, O-P., Morgenstern, M., & Vilozny, N. (2018). A catalogue of Babylonian incantation bowls in the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin). Leiden, NL: Brill.
Levene, D. (2013). Jewish Aramaic curse texts from late -antique Mesopotamia. (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity; No. 2). Leiden, NL: Brill.
Levene, D. (2003). A corpus of magic bowls: incantation texts in Jewish Aramaic from late antiquity. (Kegan Paul Library of Jewish Studies). New York, US: Kegan Paul International; Columbia University Press.

Booklets/Pamphlets

(2019) ስለ በላዔ ሰበእ The Story of Belaiy Seb from the Ethiopian Miracles of Mary. Illustrated by Gabreiyesus Asmare. Edited by D. Levene and D. Worku. Addis Ababa.
Levene, D. (2002). Curse or Blessing. What's in a Magic Bowl? Parkes Institute Pamphlet. Vol. 2, Southampton: University of Southampton.

Articles

Mamo, Y., T. Dukessa, A. Mortimore, D. Dee, A. Luintel, I. Fordham, D. I. W. Phillips, E. H. O. Parry, and D. Levene. "Non-Communicable Disease Clinics in Rural Ethiopia: Why Patients Are Lost to Follow-Up." [In eng]. Public Health Action 9, no. 3 (Sep 21 2019), 102-106.
Levene, D., Phillips, D., & Alemu, S. (2016). Medical traditions and chronic disease in Ethiopia: a story of wax and gold? Tropical Doctor, 46(3), 122-125.
Levene, D., Marx, D., & Bhayro, S. (2014). “Gabriel is on their Right” Angelic Protection in Jewish Magic and Babylonian Lore. Studia Mesopotamica, 1, 185-197.
Levene, D., & Ford, J. N. (2012). “For A’ata -de -‘abuh daughter of Imma” Two Aramaic incantation bowls in the Vorderasiatisches museum, Berlin (VA 2414 and VA 2426). Journal of Semitic Studies, 57 (1), 53-67.
Levene, D., & Bohak, G. (2012). A Babylonian Jewish Aramaic incantation bowl with a list of deities and toponyms . Jewish Studies Quarterly, 19 (1), 56-72.
Levene, D., & Bohak, G. (2012). Divorcing Lilith: from the Babylonian incantation bowls to the Cairo Genizah . Journal of Jewish Studies, 63 (2), 197-217.
Levene, D. (2009). Rare magic inscription on human skull . Biblical Archaeology Review, 35 (2), 46-50.
Levene, D. (2006). Calvariae Magicae: the Berlin, Philadelphia and Moussaieff skulls . Orientalia, 75 (4), 359-379.
Levene, D., & Bhayro, S. (2005). “Bring to the Gates… upon a good smell and upon good fragrances”: an Aramaic incantation bowl for success in business . Archiv für Orientforschung, 51, 242-246.
Levene, D. (2003). Heal O' Israel: a pair of duplicate magic bowls from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin . Journal of Jewish Studies, 54 (1), 104-121.
Levene, D. (1999). "... and by the name of Jesus ..." An unpublished magic bowl in Jewish Aramaic . Jewish Studies Quarterly, 6 (4), 283-308.
Levene, D., & Geller, M. J. (1998). Magical texts from the Geniza (with a new duplicate). Journal of Jewish Studies, 49 (2), 334-340.

Book Chapters

Levene, D., 2020. “Selling names: “Divine names from the Homily of Michael””. In Stuckenbruck, L. (ed.), Angelology/Angelic Figures in Second Temple Jewish Literature and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Tradition Preserved in Ge‘ez literature. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 175-204.
Levene, D. (2019). The Archangel Michael: an everyday popular saint in Ethiopia. In Tsakos, A., Gilhus, I. S. & Wright, M. C. (eds.), The Archangel Michael in Africa: History, Cult, and Persona. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 127-140.
Levene, D. (2019b). Magic Scrolls. In Gnisci, J. (ed.), Treasures of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levene, D. (2011). Babylonian incantation bowls . In Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Chichester, GB: Wiley-Blackwell.
Levene, D. (2011). 'This is a qybl' for overturning sorceries’; Form, formula - threads in a web of transmission . In Continuity and Innovation in the Magical Tradition. Leiden, NL: Brill, 219-244.
Levene, D. (2010). Amuletic skulls . In Vukosavović, F. (ed.), Angels and Demons, Jewish Magic Through the Ages. Jerusalem, IL: Bible Lands Museum.
Levene, D. (2010). Magic bowls and incantations . In Collins, J. J., & Harlow, D. C. (eds.), Dictionary of Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, US: Eerdmans, 910-912.
Levene, D. (2003). A happy thought of the magician: the magical get . In Deutsch, R. (ed.), Shlomo: Studies in Epigraphy, Iconography, History and Archaeology in Honor of Shlomo Moussaieff. Tel-Aviv Jaffa, IL: Archaeological Center Publications, 175-184.
Levene, D. (2003). Zauberschale mit inwendiger Beschriftung und Zeichnung . In Seipel W. (ed.), Der Turmbau zu Babel: Ursprung und Vielfalt von Sprache und Schrift ; eine Ausstellung des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien für die europäische Kulturhauptstadt Graz 2003. Wien, AT: KHM, 174-178.