Recent Franco-Syrian excavations on the Citadel of Damascus have recovered an 18th century "magic bowl" of a type relatively common in Ottoman levels at the Citadel. Decorated with strange figures and a pseudo-script, these bowls have direct parallels with Medieval and pre-Islamic incantation bowls. However, they are also linked to well-attested magical and popular medicinal practices of the Ottoman period that involve the propitiation and invocation of spins, angels and demons.