Archaeologists carrying out survey work ahead of the building of an extension to the Town Hall in Rostok on the Baltic Coast of Germany have uncovered a Late Medieval 'curse amulet', according to a press release issued on 12 December 2023. The amulet comprised a sheet of lead, in which a curse directing the devils Satan, Beelzebub, and Berith, against a man and a woman named Hinrik and Taleke, for reasons unknown, was inscribed in a Gothic script. the lead was then folded carefully and deposited within a latrine, where it would have been hard to find.
Curse amulets were common in Hellenistic Greece and the Roman Republic and Empire, between about 800 BC and about 600 AD. The Rostok curse amulet, however, dates from about 1500 AD, almost a thousand years after the practice is thought to have died out in Europe, making it a particularly significant find. Other forms of amulet made by inscribing spells on lead are known from the period, however, so perhaps the curse tablet should not be seen as completely surprising.
See also...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.
