{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "lamashtu-plaque",
 "type": "amulet",
 "names": {
  "name": "Lamashtu plaque",
  "native": "𒀭𒈕𒈨",
  "script": "cuneiform",
  "lang": "akk",
  "said": "la-MASH-tu, Akkadian dLa-maš-tu; Sumerian Dimme",
  "aliases": [
   "Lamashtu amulet",
   "Lamastu plaque",
   "Dimme amulet"
  ]
 },
 "region": [
  "mesopotamia"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "IQ",
  "SY"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "ancient",
  "status": "archaeological",
  "portable": "placed",
  "restricted": "open",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "E"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A small plaque, pierced or looped so it can hang, carrying the figure of the demon it is aimed at. Lamashtu is cut on it as a composite: a lion's or dog's head, donkey's teeth, bare breasts, bird-of-prey talons, a serpent gripped in each hand. She stands on a donkey in a boat; a dog and a piglet suckle at her. Her seven names, and an incantation telling her to keep away, run across the object in cuneiform. Bronze is the material of the big Neo-Assyrian examples; smaller ones are fired clay and cut stone.",
  "story": "Lamashtu is the daughter of the sky god Anu, and she acts on nobody's instructions but her own — the reason Assyriologists argue she is a goddess rather than a demon, and the reason her name is written with the cuneiform sign that marks deity. Her victims are the unborn and the newly born. She touches a pregnant woman's stomach seven times to kill the baby, or takes it from the wet nurse. Adolescents, adults and the old are on her list too, as a bringer of disease.\n\nThe incantations open by addressing her directly. One amulet, catalogued as AO 8184, runs through her names — 'Dimme', 'Daughter of Anu', 'Who was named by the gods', 'Victoria, heroine among ladies' — and then delivers the whole point of the object: \"you must not approach (this) person.\" The names matter because knowing them is the hold.\n\nThe largest surviving pieces are scenes rather than signs. The Neo-Assyrian plaque in the Louvre known as the Plaque des Enfers sets divine symbols above a sickroom: a patient on a bed, ritual specialists at work, and in the bottom register Lamashtu on her donkey in the boat with the serpents in her fists, while Pazuzu drives her off down the river.\n\n*Inference —* the object is not a picture of the demon so much as a place to put her. Iconographic studies distinguish an earlier threatening figure with raised hands, a middle type holding a comb and spindle, and the elaborate serpent-holding compositions of the first millennium BCE; what stays constant across all three is that she is shown named, held, and on her way out."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian",
  "from_year": -999,
  "to_year": -300,
  "living": false,
  "label": "first millennium BCE, with earlier examples this project has not seen dated",
  "method": "excavated",
  "circa": true,
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
  "note": "The cited article separates 'early representations' from 'later first-millennium BCE examples' without giving a first attestation. The span here is the dated half of that sentence; the floor is a floor, not an origin."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "plaque",
  "materials": [
   "copper",
   "terracotta"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "neck",
   "wall",
   "door",
   "grave"
  ],
  "made_by": "ritual specialists; the objects were made to be worn, attached to the body or to clothing, or set near beds, doorways and other vulnerable spaces",
  "inscription": "Lamashtu's seven names and an incantation ordering her not to approach the person named",
  "script": "cuneiform",
  "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
  "note": "An obsidian example is described in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, with a lion-griffin head, raised clawed hands and bird talons. This project read no published measurement, so none is given."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "child-harm",
   "who": "the Mesopotamian incantations, which name her victims as unborn and newly born babies",
   "quote": "you must not approach (this) person.",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "quoted from the amulet catalogued as AO 8184, as published in the cited article"
  },
  {
   "harm": "childbirth",
   "who": "Mesopotamian ritual practice; pregnant women were the second class of victim after the babies",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "illness",
   "who": "the Mesopotamian texts, where she also functions as a bringer of disease to adolescents, adults and the old",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "demons",
   "who": "the ritual imagery, which sets Pazuzu against her on the same object",
   "source": "s:wp-pazuzu",
   "tier": "cited"
  }
 ],
 "holdings": [
  {
   "museum": "louvre",
   "what": "the Neo-Assyrian 'Plaque des Enfers', with Lamashtu in the lower register and Pazuzu opposing her",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  },
  {
   "museum": "met",
   "what": "an obsidian Lamashtu amulet with a lion-griffin head",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "pazuzu-head",
   "as": "the counter-figure cut on the same plaques, shown chasing her down the river; a household could own both and they were not opposites in the tray",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "mesopotamian-apotropaic",
   "as": "the tradition this object is the centre of — a named demon, a named opponent, an incantation, and a thing to hang",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "incantation-bowl",
   "as": "the same soil a thousand years later, with the demon caught in a spiral of ink under the floor instead of nailed to a wall",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "to": "holy-rider-pendant",
   "as": "the childbirth demon again, now called Abyzou and trampled by a rider on Byzantine bronze",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "taweret-amulet",
   "as": "Egypt's answer to the same danger, and a guardian rather than a demon held off",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bes-amulet",
   "as": "the Egyptian household protector scholars compare to Pazuzu, and so to this plaque's other half",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "serpent",
   "as": "the sign in both her fists on the first-millennium compositions",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "as": "where these went — beds, doorways, and the places a household counted as open",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "as": "the long read this object opens: the oldest named amulet-demon in the atlas hunts newborns",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Lamashtu — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamashtu"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-lamashtu",
  "s:wp-pazuzu",
  "s:wp-mesopotamian-mythology",
  "s:wp-apotropaic-magic"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
    "note": "the closing paragraph is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
   },
   "dating": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
    "note": "hedged in dating.note; the earliest examples are undated in the source"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Lamashtu plaque.jpg",
  "File:Plaque des enfers.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A small plaque, pierced or looped so it can hang, carrying the figure of the demon it is aimed at.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "mesopotamia",
   "name": "Mesopotamia",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ],
   "note": "Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria"
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "pazuzu-head",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Pazuzu head",
   "as": "the counter-figure cut on the same plaques, shown chasing her down the river; a household could own both and they were not opposites in the tray",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "mesopotamian-apotropaic",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Mesopotamian household protection",
   "as": "the tradition this object is the centre of — a named demon, a named opponent, an incantation, and a thing to hang",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "incantation-bowl",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Incantation bowl",
   "as": "the same soil a thousand years later, with the demon caught in a spiral of ink under the floor instead of nailed to a wall",
   "rel": "descendant"
  },
  {
   "to": "holy-rider-pendant",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Holy rider pendant",
   "as": "the childbirth demon again, now called Abyzou and trampled by a rider on Byzantine bronze",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "taweret-amulet",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Taweret amulet",
   "as": "Egypt's answer to the same danger, and a guardian rather than a demon held off",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bes-amulet",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Bes amulet",
   "as": "the Egyptian household protector scholars compare to Pazuzu, and so to this plaque's other half",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "serpent",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The serpent",
   "as": "the sign in both her fists on the first-millennium compositions",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "to": "hanging-at-door",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Hanging at the door",
   "as": "where these went — beds, doorways, and the places a household counted as open",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Most of them are for children",
   "as": "the long read this object opens: the oldest named amulet-demon in the atlas hunts newborns",
   "rel": "story"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Lamashtu",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamashtu",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-pazuzu",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Pazuzu",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazuzu",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-mesopotamian-mythology",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Mesopotamian mythology",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_mythology",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-apotropaic-magic",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Apotropaic magic",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotropaic_magic",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "note": "the closing paragraph is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "note": "hedged in dating.note; the earliest examples are undated in the source"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "child-harm",
   "label": "Harm to a child",
   "gloss": "harm to an infant or a small child; common across the atlas, though not the largest class in it — see /story/most-of-them-are-for-children/",
   "who": "the Mesopotamian incantations, which name her victims as unborn and newly born babies",
   "quote": "you must not approach (this) person.",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": "quoted from the amulet catalogued as AO 8184, as published in the cited article"
  },
  {
   "key": "childbirth",
   "label": "Death in childbirth",
   "who": "Mesopotamian ritual practice; pregnant women were the second class of victim after the babies",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "illness",
   "label": "Illness",
   "gloss": "sickness in general, where no cause is named",
   "who": "the Mesopotamian texts, where she also functions as a bringer of disease to adolescents, adults and the old",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "demons",
   "label": "Demons and night-hags",
   "who": "the ritual imagery, which sets Pazuzu against her on the same object",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-pazuzu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "copper",
   "label": "Copper and bronze",
   "kind": "metal"
  },
  {
   "key": "terracotta",
   "label": "Fired clay",
   "kind": "fired"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "neck",
   "label": "At the neck",
   "group": "body",
   "note": "the world's default position"
  },
  {
   "key": "wall",
   "label": "On a wall",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "door",
   "label": "At the door",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "grave",
   "label": "In the grave",
   "group": "placed",
   "note": "most surviving ancient amulets are here because somebody was buried in them"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "plaque",
  "label": "Plaque or tablet"
 },
 "holding_facts": [
  {
   "key": "louvre",
   "label": "Musée du Louvre",
   "city": "Paris",
   "country": "FR",
   "url": "",
   "what": "the Neo-Assyrian 'Plaque des Enfers', with Lamashtu in the lower register and Pazuzu opposing her",
   "accession": "",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  },
  {
   "key": "met",
   "label": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art",
   "city": "New York",
   "country": "US",
   "url": "",
   "open": true,
   "what": "an obsidian Lamashtu amulet with a lion-griffin head",
   "accession": "",
   "source": "s:wp-lamashtu"
  }
 ],
 "span": "1000 BCE – 301 BCE",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "IQ",
   "name": "Iraq"
  },
  {
   "iso": "SY",
   "name": "Syria"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "holy-rider-pendant",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Holy rider pendant",
   "as": "the same demon's job description two thousand years earlier and one region east — A. A. Barb traced this family of she-demons back to the Mesopotamian primeval sea",
   "rel": "origin"
  },
  {
   "from": "incantation-bowl",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Incantation bowl",
   "as": "the same argument in bronze a millennium earlier, with the demon pictured instead of written",
   "rel": "origin"
  },
  {
   "from": "pazuzu-head",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Pazuzu head",
   "as": "the demon he is bought for; the necklace in the Uruk texts exists because she is in the room",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "taweret-amulet",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Taweret amulet",
   "as": "Mesopotamia's answer to the same fear — but there the danger to mother and baby is the figure on the plaque, and here she is the guard",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "mesopotamian-apotropaic",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Mesopotamian household protection",
   "as": "the object at the centre of it — the demon, named and held, on a thing you can hang",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "from": "lion",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The lion",
   "as": "the lion head on the demon rather than on the guard, which is what makes this family two-sided",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "from": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Most of them are for children",
   "as": "the oldest named answer in this class: a plaque against the demon the incantations say takes the unborn and the newly born",
   "rel": "carries"
  }
 ]
}