Mirror Plaque [so-called Tushingham Plaqu]

In Syria, Palestine, an Egypt, stone or clay plaques such as this one were displayed in houses and frequently placed in tombs. Examples have been excavated in pagan, Jewish, and Christian contexts. This plaque, in the shape of a gabled shrine, has a hole punched at the top for suspension. Above and below the scalloped lunette-shaped niche are two registers, each with a circular frame depression originally inset with a mirror.

Such mirrors seem to have been made for ceremonial, magical, or symbolic purposes: they were used for protection against evil forces in this life and perils in the afterlife. Pagan and rustic beliefs held that the mirror could deflect evil glances, deadly poisons, and other natural misfortune. In Greek mythology, for instance, Perseus used his reflective shield against the deadly gaze of the Gorgon Medusa. Or again, in antique compilations of agricultural treatises, farmers are reputed to have deflected hail from their crops by holding out mirrors to the threatening clouds.