Dr Dan Levene

Dr Dan Levene

History
School of Humanities
University of Southampton
Southampton
S017 1BJ

Position: Senior Lecturer.

Research interests

As a Semitist who specialises in Aramaic dialects and Hebrew my interests are focused on primary sources of a textual nature and specifically on editing manuscripts from late antiquity and the middle ages. In recent years I have concentrated my efforts on two areas of creative research:

1. Editing Jewish Aramaic magical texts from late antiquity. At present I am editing two main groups that will result in two monographs; the first is a collection of aggressive magical spells the other a group of apotropaic spells.
2. Identifying the use of metal related technology in Jewish literary sources ranging from antiquity to the middle ages.

Areas where I can offer Postgraduate Supervision:

Text analyses and critical editing of literature in Aramaic dialects and Hebrew of late antiquity and the medieval period, Jewish magic, the history of technology as represented in Jewish literature from antiquity to the middle ages.

Contact

Room: 1001
Tel: +44 (0)2380 594 795
Email: dl3@soton.ac.uk


VMBA Virtual Magic Bowl Archive


Publications

  • Curse or Blessing, What's in the Magic Bowl?2002. 'Curse or Blessing, What's in the Magic Bowl? The Ian Karten Lecture 2002', Parkes Institute Pamphlet No. 2. Southampton. Download it here (pdf).
  • 2003. A Corpus of Magic Bowls: Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity. London: Kegan Paul
  • 2003. 'A Happy Thought of the Magician, The Magical Get'. In Shlomo, Studies in Epigraphy, Iconography, History and Archaeology in Honor of Shlomo Moussaieff, edited by R. Deutsch. Tel-Aviv Jaffa: Archaeological Center Publications. 175-184.
  • 2003. 'Heal O' Israel: A Pair of Duplicate Magic A Corpus of Magic Bowls: Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity Bowls from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin'. Journal of Jewish Studies LIV (1):104-121.
  • Levene, Dan, and Beno Rothenberg. 2004. Word-Smithing: Some Metallurgical Terms in Hebrew and Aramaic. Aramaic Studies 2 (2):193-206.
  • 2005. 'Jewish Liturgy and magic bowls'. In Studies in Jewish Prayer, edited by R. Hayward. JSS Suppliment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 163-184.
     
  • Levene, Dan and Beno Rothenberg. 2007. A Metallurgical Gemara:Metals in the Jewish Sources. London: Institute of Archaeo-metallurgical Studies.
  • A Metallurgical Gemara:Metals in the Jewish Sources2007. ‘“If you appear as a pig”: Another incantation bowl (Moussaieff 164). Journal of Semitic Studies.
  • 2007. ‘Calvariae Magicae: The Berlin, Philadelphia and Moussaieff skulls’. Orientalia.
  • Levene, Dan and Siam Bhayro. 2007. ‘“Bring to the Gates… upon a good smell and upon good fragrances”: An Aramaic incantation bowl for success in business’. Archiv für Orientforschung.

 

 

Website

VMBA. Virtual Magic Bowl Archive
Teaching responsibilities for Dr Dan Levene
Module title Module code Discipline Role
Early Jewish Magic HIST1075 History Course leader
Iraq before Islam: religious lives in late antiquity 1 HIST3140 History Course leader
Iraq before Islam: religious lives in late antiquity 2 HIST3141 History Course leader
Old Testament Texts: Origins, Traditions and Transmission HIST2034 History Course leader
The History of Jews in Babylonia HIST6028 History Course leader
Group Project HIST2008 History Tutor
Travellers' Tales HIST3150 History Tutor

Publications from e–Prints Soton

Levene, Dan and Rothenberg, Beno (2007) A metallurgical gemara: metals in the Judaic sources, London, UK, The Institute of Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies, The Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 185pp. (Metal in History, 4)
Levene, D. (2006) Calvariae Magicae: the Berlin, Philadelphia and Moussaieff skulls. Orientalia, 75, (4), 359-379.
Levene, Dan and Rothenberg, Beno (2004) Word-smithing: some metallurgical terms in Hebrew and Aramaic. Aramaic Studies, 2, (2), 193-206. (doi:10.1177/147783510400200203)
Levene, Dan (2003) A Corpus of Magic Bowls: Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity , London, UK; New York, USA, Kegan Paul International; Columbia University Press, 236pp. (Kegan Paul Library of Jewish Studies)
Levene, Dan (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, Dan and Rothenberg, Beno (2001) Early evidence of steelmaking in the Judaic sources. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 92, (1-2), 105-127.