Does anyone know where I might find information on the construction of Roman lead curses ? The ones that interest me are the little pieces of folded lead that inside just bear the name of the cursed person.
I saw an unopened one on a Time Team programme ,Big Roman Dig ? but it was not clear to me exactly where the name was to be found and how it had been written in or on the lead.
Is there an expert in the house who can clarify this detail for me?

Not an expert, by any means, but I've just been reading about them - in one of Guy de la Bedoyere's books, "The Finds of Roman Britain".

They were often deposited in sacred springs, rivers or temples. The curse was inscribed on the sheet of lead with a sharp instrument like a pin: it could range from just the victim's name to a quite graphic and unpleasant description of what the curser would like to happen to them! I suppose it would depend on how much they could write, or wanted to pay a scribe to write for them. The lead was then rolled or folded up and deposited somewhere, probably with a prayer to the god(s) to apply the curse.

When they are found, like the one on Time Team, they have to be unfolded or unrolled to read the writing inside. It's a bit of a delicate operation but lead is soft enough for it to be possible, yet durable enough for the scratched inscription to survive.

I remember seeing a program on the springs at bath and the finds mentioned above in the silt at the bottom of the baths

What fascinates me about things like this is that I can actually read what was written all those years ago: Roman handwriting isn't so very different from ours - although I suppose that should be the other way around, as we use their alphabet.

I seem to remember there were a few on display in the museum part of the Roman Baths in Bath.

Does anyone know if any were constructed from two thin pieces of lead in a sandwich with the actual curse written on an even thinner piece of lead placed inside before being sealed up and then folded.
Thanks for the feedback to date.

Like a sort of lead envelope, you mean? It's possible, although none of the examples in any of my books seem to have been like that - at least, if they were it's not mentioned. But there's a reference to one from Bath being written on both sides of the lead, so it could have been wrapped up I suppose.

I remember when we touched on this topic during my course last year, it reminded me of something my grandmother used to do many years ago. Dont know if this rings any bells. Whenever some one had wronged her, the offending persons name would be written on a piece of paper and placed at the back of the knife drawer in her kitchen.

Not exactly a lead curse, but a similar idea, I am sure. There is nothing new in the world, is there.....?

I guess that these individual curses are not of much interest to the academics, who write the books,because they don't contain any text ,just a name, so there is not a lot you can learn about Roman life from them. Now a lead tablet containing text is a whole different story. I just wanted to be clear in my own mind exactly how these little individual folded lead curses were made. I think there is more to them than just getting a piece of lead,scratching a name on it and then folding it up. The Romans were more sophisticated than that.

Here's the one in Guy's book, as mentioned above:

"Basilia donat in templum Martis anilum argentum si servus si liber tamdiu silverit vel aliquid de hoc noverit ut sanguine liminibus ob omnibus membris configatur vel etiam intestinis excomesis omnibus habeat is qui anilum involavit vel qui medius fuerit".

which means: "Basilia gives to the temple of Mars her silver ring, and asks that so long as someone, whether slave or free, keeps silent or knows anything about it, he may be cursed in his blood and eyes and every limb, or even have all his intestines eaten away, if he has stolen the ring or been involved in it."

I think she was ever so slightly upset about losing it!

Perhaps when only a name was scratched on the lead, they spoke or even just thought the curse in a prayer to the gods when they deposited the lead.

quote:

Originally posted by dave244:
I guess that these individual curses are not of much interest to the academics, who write the books,because they don't contain any text ,just a name, so there is not a lot you can learn about Roman life from them. .

Far from it. There is a series of books by Frere and Tomlin devoted to the subject of the inscriptions of Roman Britain. These cover a wide variety of sources including names on tiles and other everyday objects. Any information such as this helps to build up a picture of the population in the RB period.

The cuse that I found did not have any name on it but it has been translated & it says.

To the person slave of free, who stole my pot. may they be cursed by Neptune, with hazel.

Best wishes

Eddie

PS. I still have not found out what the word Hazel would have ment in those far off Roman times.
Does anyone else know what it means.