Currently not on view
Curse tablet,
3rd–4th century CE
Byzantine
Late Antiquity, ca. 476–700 CE
2011-145 a-c
Information
Title
Curse tablet
Dates
3rd–4th century CE
Medium
Lead
Dimensions
a: approx. 7 x 6.7 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/8 in.)
b: approx. 5.3 x 6.7 cm (2 1/16 x 2 5/8 in.)
c: approx. 11 x 6 cm (4 5/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch to Princeton University
Object Number
2011-145 a-c
Place Excavated
Turkey, Antioch on the Orontes
Inscription
According to Florent Heintz (2000, p. 166) the curse inscribed in Greek, “aimed at a greengrocer named Babylas, a typically Antiochene name made popular by a bishop and saint of the mid third century. [It] gives the demon in charge of carrying out the spell precise genealogical and topographical information concerning his target: the three different aliases the shopkeeper’s mother assumed, as well as the city block and even the precise location on a colonnaded street of his vegetable stall. The demon is repeatedly asked to “bind” Babylas, to “lay him low” to “stink him like lead,” to destroy his animals and his house in general.”
Period
Type
Materials
Excavated by the Princeton-led team at Antioch-on-the-Orontes, present-day Antakya, Turkey, 1931-1939; with the Museum since 1939
- William Alexander Campbell, "The third season of excavation at Antioch-on-the-Orontes", American journal of archaeology 40, no. 1 (Jan.–Mar., 1936): p. 1-10., p. 2
- Donald N. Wilber, Antioch-on-the-Orontes II: the excavations 1933 –1936, ed., Richard Stillwell, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; London: Oxford University Press; The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1938)., p. 148
-
John H. Humphrey, "Prolegomena to the study of the Hippodrome at Caesarea Maritima", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
No. 213 (Feb., 1974): p. 2-45., p. 40 -
D.R. Jordan, "A survey of Greek defixiones not included in the special corpora", Greek, Roman and Byzantine studies 26, no. 2 (Summer, 1985): p. 151-197.
, p. 193 - Florent Heintz, "Magic tablets and the games at Antioch", in ed. Christine Kondoleon, Antioch: the lost ancient city, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 2000)., cat. no. 53; pg. 165 (illus.).
- Christine Kondoleon, Antioch: the lost ancient city, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).
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Alexander Hollmann, "A curse tablet from the circus at Antioch", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 145 (2003): p. 67-82.
, p. 69-71 - "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2011," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 71/72 (2012-13): p. 75-132., p. 93
