Roman Curse Tablet Found in Heerlen Reveals an Egyptian-Style Spell
A lead tablet pulled from a pit beneath Heerlen’s town hall square has opened a small but revealing window onto the religious world of the Roman Empire. Researchers at Heidelberg University have deciphered the 2nd-century object, which was found in the Netherlands near the remains of Coriovallum, a Roman military settlement on the Via Belgica.
Measuring just 3.5 by 1.8 inches, the tablet is one of many Roman curse tablets known to archaeologists, but its language and imagery set it apart. The inscription is written in ancient Greek and invokes deities and demons in an Egyptian style, an unusual combination for a find from northern Europe, where such tablets are more often written in Latin.
The text includes three magical symbols known as characteres, followed by four names: two masculine names in Latin and two feminine names in Greek. All four belonged to enslaved people, according to the researchers. Rodney Ast, the academic director at Heidelberg University’s Institute for Papyrology, said in press materials that the tablet may have been used either as a curse against those four slaves or as a curse in their name against an unnamed person.
Julia Lougovaya, a research associate at the institute, said it is also possible that one of the two women wrote the inscription herself and brought the practice with her from Roman Egypt. Joachim Quack, director of the Institute of Egyptology, placed the object within a broader religious landscape, noting that Near Eastern, Egyptian, Jewish, and sometimes Christian traditions increasingly merged across the empire in the early centuries C.E.
The tablet was examined with reflectance transformation imaging, a technique that uses photographs taken under varied lighting to build a highly detailed surface image. That analysis helped researchers read the inscription and confirm that the artifact is made of lead, a material favored for defixiones and katadesmoi because of its weight, cool surface, and supposed binding power.
Roman curse tablets are not rare — more than 1,500 have reportedly been found from Syria to the U.K. — but this example is notable for the way it blends languages, ritual forms, and cultural references. The newly deciphered tablet will soon go on view at the Heerlen Museum and will also appear in a scholarly publication, extending its afterlife from buried spell to public artifact.
