In the process of conducting research for writing my book Voodoo Dolls in Magick and Ritual, I came across only one study on the topic of Voodoo dolls; specifically, this was a survey of Voodoo dolls in antiquity (see Faraone, 1988). This examination discovered 15 archaic Voodoo dolls in Greece, nine from Sicily and Italy, four from North Africa, seven from Egypt, three from the Near East, and one from the Black Sea (Ankarloo, et al. 1999). In ancient Greece, Voodoo dolls, known as Kolossoi, were found alongside curse tablets. These dolls are most frequently found in graves, sanctuaries, bodies of water, a riverbed, a sewer, and a Hellenistic house on Delos (Ankarloo, et al.).

A surprising number of ancient Voodoo dolls were fashioned out of lead or bronze. However, the evidence shows that wax was used in late ancient Egypt, and wax was used in conjunction with lead during the fourth century B.C. Other dolls were found to be created out of mud, clay, terra cotta, and possibly the dirt from graves (Graf, 1994). Many of these dolls are found with numerous nails stuck in them, similar to the bocio of African origin. In New Orleans, dolls were made from mud, clay, wax, cloth, sticks, and Spanish moss into which pins or fish bones would be stuck to activate the power of the gris gris.

The aforementioned survey of Voodoo dolls in ancient Greece and Rome clearly illustrates that the use of Voodoo dolls as a means of defense was not limited to African slaves in the New World. For example, slaves in, ancient Greece are thought to have used Voodoo dolls to bind and curse those in positions of power. The fear of such magickal activity is reflected in the sentiment “the unutterable crime of the wicked public slave” when referring to the discovery of oblong coffins in a graveyard that contained Voodoo dolls with the names of town officials inscribed on its legs(Ankarloo, et al. 1999).