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Heidelberg Deciphers 2nd‑Century Lead Curse Tablet From Roman Coriovallum

Scholars say the Greek inscription invokes Egyptian‑style powers along with four slave names, a sign of far‑reaching religious and linguistic mixing in the Roman Empire.

The Heerlen curse tablet features an ancient Greek invocation of deities and demons in the Egyptian style.
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Overview

  • Dutch archaeologists recovered the small lead tablet under Heerlen’s town‑hall square at the Roman site of Coriovallum and sent it to Heidelberg University for analysis.
  • Heidelberg researchers deciphered the tablet Tuesday using reflectance transformation imaging and laboratory study, and they dated the object to the second century C.E.
  • The Greek text uses Egyptian‑style invocations and three magical signs called characteres, followed by four enslaved people’s names written as two Latin masculine names and two Greek feminine names.
  • Researchers say the inscription is ambiguous: it either curses the four named slaves or is a curse written on their behalf against an unnamed person, and one of the women may have brought the ritual knowledge from Roman Egypt.
  • The tablet will be published in a scholarly outlet and shown at the Heerlen Museum, giving historians a rare, personal glimpse of ritual magic and cultural exchange in the northern Roman provinces.