An ancient curse tablet found at a former Roman military settlement in the Netherlands, has been identified as bearing a a rare Greek-language intending spell intended to harm enemies.

The discovery was announced in June by public research university Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, or Heidelberg University, in Germany.

Curse tablets, known as defixiones in Latin or katadesmoi in Greek, were commonly made of lead due to it being simple to work with and because it was believed, in antiquity, to possess arcane “binding” properties. 

According to Heidelberg University’s Institute for Papyrology Academic Director Dr. Rodney Ast, such tablets would be inscribed with spells and then buried in order to influence or “bind” any so-called enemies of the caster, such as athletic opponents, or romantic rivals.

The lead curse tablet found in the Netherlands was discovered by a team of Dutch archaeologists in a pit beneath the town hall square of the Roman military settlement of Coriovallum, located at the modern day Heerlen.

It measures at 9.3 by 4.8 centimeters.

Using reflectance transformation imaging (RTI), a computer-assisted photographic technique involves taking multiple images of the inscription in different lighting setups, revealed three distinct groups of characters inscribed on the tablet’s face.

What makes the find so incredible is the language of its inscription, said Ast.

Rather than being written in Latin, he said, as most curse tablets found in Northern Europe are, the tablet discovered in Heerlen is inscribed in an Egyptian-style of ancient Greek.

Ast added that the tablet bears a group of three “magical” symbols likely used to convey the caster’s message to the supernatural powers they were attempting to contact.

Following the symbols are the names of two men and two women, described as “slaves.”

“The tablet served either as a curse against these four slaves or as a curse in their name against an unnamed person,” Ast explained.

The composition of these figures is also unusual, he noted, as the men have Latin names while the women’s names are Greek.

“It cannot be ruled out that one of the two women was the author of the inscription and had brought the supposed ability to communicate with divine powers through such curses with her from Roman Egypt,” said Dr. Julia Lougovaya, a research associate at the Institute for Papyrology.

Magic played an important role in ancient Egypt, especially that related to protection and healing - practices that were recognized and accepted as part of everyday religious life.

“In the early centuries CE, Near Eastern, Egyptian, Jewish, and sometimes even Christian traditions increasingly merged and spread throughout the entire Roman Empire of that time,” explained Professor Dr. Joachim Quack, Heidelberg University’s Institute for Egyptology director, “a development that the discovery from Heerlen impressively underscores.”

The curse tablet is slated to be displayed at the Heerlen Museum in the future, and its inscription will be made available to researchers and the public as part of a scholarly publication.

Similarly in February, a study led by Dr. Walter Crist from Leiden University used artificial intelligence to crack the mystery behind a 2,000-year-old limestone slab found beneath Heerlen.

Small enough to hold in both hands, the limestone bears a grid of lines carved onto its smoothed upper surface. Researchers used two different techniques in attempt to solve the mystery of the slab’s function: use-wear analysis and AI simulation.

“We identified the object as a game because of the geometric pattern on its upper face and because of evidence that it was deliberately shaped,” according to Crist, adding that “further evidence that it was a game was presented by visible damage on the surface that would be consistent with abrasion caused by sliding Roman-era game pieces on the surface."

Drawing on historical Northern European games such as haretavl from Scandinavia and gioco dell’orso from Italy, the study explained that 1,000 automated games were run for each of the 130 possible rule combinations set by the researchers. 

Two AI agents played against each other as the software tracked which lines on the board were used most frequently. The results pointed to blocking games, in which one player attempts to trap the other's pieces so they cannot move.

The limestone slab was likely carved during the late Roman period between 250 and 476 CE, pushing the known historical timeline of game boards back by several centuries.