Talk:Bulla (amulet)

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Why do we have a section on this? Is it simply because an Irish curator described similar objects from Irish culture as "bullae"? That's difficult to check, as the linked Irish site is "not found". The objects might well be comparable, but many cultures worldwide use similar objects, strung around the neck to contain an apotropaic charm of some kind. As far as I know, any resemblance would be coincidental. There's no evidence of direct contact between Roman and Irish cultures until the late post-Imperial (Chritian missionary) period; which is fine, and I'm not at all against expansion of the article to include bulla-type articles from cultures other than Roman; but is bulla really a standard or scholarly descriptor for such objects? Haploidavey (talk) 17:05, 28 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Answering my own question after a search on google scholar - yes, it seems to be a fairly standard (though not universal) term for such objects. Haploidavey (talk) 17:40, 28 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have read (though I cannot, alas, cite the source) that one important and practical use of the bulla was as a very real protection from being anally penetrated by an adult male. In Roman law, a Roman man or boy could not legally be penetrated; but slaves could be, and often were, without legal censure. An adult, reaching for a boy in the dark, had only to put his hand upon the amulet at his neck to realise his error, and draw back at once.

Nuttyskin (talk) 06:49, 12 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]