Largest cache of curse tablets

The largest known cache of curse tablets (or defixiones) was found in the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Roman god Mercury, located near the present-day village of Uley in Gloucestershire, UK. A total of 131 curse tablets were discovered during archaeological excavations carried out by Ann Woodward and Peter Leach between 1977 and 1979.

Curse tablets were small sheets of metal, usually lead or a lead alloy, which an individual would inscribe with a request to the gods. The requests on these tablets, however, were not benign prayers. They were instead pleas for vengeance, for theives to be struck down with horrible illnesses, for the marriages of lost loves to fail, and various other malicious purposes. These short requests were carefully folded and placed in a location of magical power. Common locations in which these tablets have been found include sacred springs and rivers, temples, wells and in the soil of graveyards. In some cases people would even open tombs to place curse tablets in the hands of the dead.

As has been recorded in other sites around the Roman world, the tablets at Uley do not all have inscriptions on them – around 45 are blank, but have been folded and deposited in the same way as the others. It has been suggested that it was common for illiterate Romans to speak their curse, then place the folded lead with the other inscribed pieces. In some cases these blank tablets have been inscribed with scratches seemingly intended to resemble writing.

Belief in the efficacy of these curses was widespread in the ancient world, and not restricted to the uneducated lower classes. Even emperors and the Roman aristocracy worried about the power of these small pieces of lead. The death of the Emperor Tiberius's adopted son, Germanicus, for example, was attributed to "the implements of witchcraft by which it is believed that the living soul can be devoted to the powers of the underworld".