User:CarlyBach/Bath curse tablets

[Feedback from Dr Austen - Great work here Carly, and I can se that you have made excellent use of the scholarship available. I will not repeat the points made by your peer reviewer, since they are very thorough already, and I agree that these are all valid points to keep in mind as you continue working on your own draft. I think the two key sections you are planning on adding work perfectly, and will lead to a very well-rounded article.]

** From Wikipedias, [ Bath curse tablets] **

The Bath curse tablets are a collection of about 130 Roman-era curse tablets (or defixiones in Latin) discovered in 1979/1980 in the English city of Bath. The tablets act as a request for intervention of the goddess Sulis Minerva in the return of stolen goods and to curse the perpetrators of thefts. Inscribed mostly in British Latin, they have been used to attest to the everyday spoken vernacular of the Romano-British population of the second to fourth centuries A.D. They have also been recognised by UNESCO in its Memory of the World UK Register.

Discovery and Description
The Roman baths and temple dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva in the English city of Bath (founded by the Romans as Aquae Sulis) were excavated between 1978 and 1983 by a team led by Barry Cunliffe and Peter Davenport. In 1979/1980, around 130 tablets were discovered in an excavation of the "Sacred Spring" under the King's Bath. This excavation was made possible by the removal of the concrete floor and walls, revealing a huge array of Roman-era items including the tablets. The findings at the spring highlight what Sulis Minerva meant to the people here.

The tablets, some in a fragmentary state, were small and rectangular and initially were assumed to be made of lead, although subsequent metallurgical analysis revealed that they are, in fact, made of lead alloyed with tin, with occasional traces of copper. Some of the tablets were cast under pressure into thin, flexible sheets with a finish as smooth as paper whereas others appear to have been roughly hammered out from a molten lump. Most of the tablets were inscribed, either with Roman capitals or with cursive script, but the expertise of the lettering varied. Some of the tablets had markings that appear to be an illiterate imitation of lettering, for example repetitive lines of crosses or sevens, and some were completely blank.

The inscriptions on the tablets were published in full in 1988 by historian Roger Tomlin. The tablets themselves are on public display at the Roman Baths Museum in Bath.

Creation
The inscribed messages on the tablets were likely completed by specialists who used four steps to complete the process.

The first step of the creation of the tablets was the drawing of the curse text. This was an essential step in planning the length of the text in response to the size of the tablet sheet. The second step was the production of the tablet, which could be completed with the proper equipment. The third step is the inscription process which is where the primary source of information is gained from the curse tablets. Numerous handwriting styles have been used in the inscription process amongst ornate detail speculating to a scribes role. The final step included the deposition of the tablet. '''The deposition process would change in regards to which deity the curse called too. The Bath Curse tablets were deposited in a body of water at the temple sacred to Sulis Minerva, where she could then act on the prayer for justice.'''

'''Each of these steps was critical in the proper creation and deposition of the curse tablet. Although many tablets are believed to have been created by specialists, amateur cursers were also responsible for completing these tasks. Illiterate people also created curse tablets; as they could not write the written formulae, they trusted in the goddess Sulis to decipher their curse marks.'''

The Binding Ritual
To this day, questions surround the magic that took place in the process of binding curses. The earliest examples of curse tablets include lists of names and were likely adjoined with a curse spoken aloud; as literacy spread throughout the Roman world, the curse tablets became much more detailed with inscriptions depicting a "written formulae". The written formulae would be addressed to the goddess Sulis who had the power to identify the thief and enact punishment onto the culprit. The formulation of the tablets evoke the idea of religious practices as the written formula can be read as a "prayer for justice" to the goddess. The ritual of the curse tablets combines elements of a magical process and religion to connect to the mainline deity.

Inscriptions
The tablets were identified as “curse tablets” dating from the second to fourth centuries A.D. Curse tablets are metal sheets inscribed with curses against specific people who committed petty theft. The tablets were meant to call upon the gods for assistance in reaching justice; acting as a popular use of magic throughout the Roman world.

Language
Most of the inscriptions are in colloquial Latin, and specifically in the Vulgar Latin of the Romano-British population, known as "British Latin". Two of the inscriptions are in a language which is not Latin, although they use Roman lettering, and may be in a British Celtic language. If this should be the case, they would be the only examples of a written ancient British Celtic language; however, there is not yet scholarly consensus on their decipherment.

Content
All but one of the 130 Bath curse tablets concern the restitution of stolen goods and are a type of curse tablet known as "prayers for justice". The complained of thefts are generally of personal possessions from the baths such as jewellery, gemstones, money, household goods and especially clothing. Theft from public baths appears to have been a common problem as it was a well-known Roman literary stereotype and severe laws existed to punish the perpetrators. Most of the depositors of the tablets (the victims of the thefts) appear to have been from the lower social classes.

The inscriptions generally follow the same formula, suggesting it was taken from a handbook: the stolen property is declared as having been transferred to a deity so that the loss becomes the deity’s loss; the suspect is named and, in 21 cases, so is the victim; the victim then asks the deity to visit afflictions on the thief (including death) not as a punishment but to induce the thief to hand the stolen items back. The curse tablet was meant to ask the goddess Sulis Minerva to bring punishment on to the thief; they were a form of communication with the goddess. Once created, the tablets were later deposited by the victims in the spring that was sacred to the goddess Sulis Minerva herself.

Examples
'''The Bath Curse Tablets include several different texts, all with a similar goal. Some wish for the goddess to kill their offender, while others seek alternative forms of justice.'''

A typical example reads:


 * "Solinus to the goddess Sulis Minerva. I give to your divinity and majesty [my] bathing tunic and cloak. Do not allow sleep or health to him who has done me wrong, whether man or woman or whether slave or free unless he reveals himself and brings those goods to your temple."

The formula "whether man or woman or whether slave or free" is typical, and the following example is unusual in two respects. Firstly it adds the words "whether pagan or Christian" and secondly the text was written in reversed lettering:


 * "Whether pagan or Christian, whether man or woman, whether boy or girl, whether slave or free whoever has stolen from me, Annianus [son of] Matutina (?), six silver coins from my purse, you, Lady Goddess, are to exact [them] from him. If through some deceit he has given me...and do not give thus to him but reckon as (?) the blood of him who has invoked his upon me."

Many name the suspected thieves:


 * "I have given to the goddess Sulis the six silver coins which I have lost. It is for the goddess to exact [them] from the names written below: Senicianus and Saturninus and Anniola."

Some of the inscriptions are very specific in the afflictions requested and reveal the intensity of the victim's anger:


 * "Docimedis has lost two gloves and asks that the thief responsible should lose their minds [sic] and eyes in the goddess' temple."
 * "May he who carried off Vilbia from me become liquid as the water. May she who so obscenely devoured her become dumb"
 * "...so long as someone, whether slave or free, keeps silent or knows anything about it, he may be accursed in (his) blood, and eyes and every limb and even have all (his) intestines quite eaten away if he has stolen the ring or been privy (to the theft)."

One of the suspected British Celtic inscriptions has been translated as:


 * "The affixed – Deuina, Deieda, Andagin, (and) Uindiorix – I have bound"

An alternative translation of the above inscription is:


 * "May I, Windiorix for/at Cuamena defeat (alt. summon to justice) the worthless woman, oh divine Deieda."

Significance
The Bath curse tablets are the most important record of Romano-British religion yet published. Curse tablets are of particular use in evidencing the Vulgar Latin of everyday speech, and, since their publication in 1988, the Bath inscriptions have been used as evidence of the nature of British Latin. Additionally, the contents of the inscriptions have been used as evidence of popular attitudes to crime and the system of justice. In 2014, the Bath curse tablets were recognised by UNESCO in its Memory of the World UK Register.

References 