Eski Roma lanet tablosu Mısır şeytan magisinden fayda sağlıyor

Magical remedies were an everyday part of life inancient Rome, but their intended outcomes weren’t always for the greater good. One popular problem-solving tactic involved the use of artisanal curse tablets. Known in Latin asdefixionesandkatadesmoiin Greek, the small objects were traditionally crafted from lead due to the heavy metal’s alleged binding properties and buried alongside the deceased. But although they were common accessories throughoutRome, one example recently discovered near the present-day southern border between Germany and the Netherlands is particularly striking for its content, subjects, and language.

A tiny curse tablet excavated in the Dutch municipality of Heerlen allegedly invokesEgyptian deitiesand demons not in Latin, but ancient Greek. What’s more, its authors appear to have been four enslaved individuals.

Archaeologists from Heidelberg University located the roughly 3.6-by-1.8 inch artifact while investigating a pit underneath a town hall square in what was once the Roman military settlement of Coriovallum. To read the faded inscriptions, experts at the university’s Institute of Papyrology utilized reflectance transformation imaging (RTI), a photographic approach that combines multiple scans of a subject taken under varying lighting. Digitally amassing the various images allows researchers to read otherwise imperceptible texts etched into objects like the lead curse tablet.

Based on their examinations, the team identified an invocation featuring a pair of men with Latin names as well as women with Greek names, all referred to as enslaved individuals. Examiners also spotted three magical runes known ascharacteresintended to communicate with supernatural forces. However, papyrologistRodney Astexplained it remains unclear if these subjects were the curse’s recipients, or its crafters.

“The tablet served either as a curse against these four slaves, or as a curse in their name against an unnamed person,” Astsaid in a statement.

According to fellow papyrologistJulia Lougovaya, the names may offer clues to both the authors and their place of origin.

“It cannot be ruled out that one of the two women was the author of the inscription and had brought the supposed ability to communicate with divine powers through such curses with her from Roman Egypt,” explained Lougovaya.

Heidelberg University egyptologistJoachim Quackadded that although unique for the region, the curse tablet’s amalgamation of religious, linguistic, and cultural influences encapsulate the time period itself.

“In the early centuries [CE], Near Eastern, Egyptian, Jewish, and sometimes even Christian traditions increasingly merged and spread throughout the entire Roman Empire of that time,” he said. “[It’s] a development that the discovery from Heerlen impressively underscores.”