Currently not on view
Curse tablet,
3rd–6th century CE
Byzantine
Late Antiquity, ca. 476–700 CE
2011-147 a-b
Information
Title
Curse tablet
Dates
3rd–6th century CE
Medium
Lead
Dimensions
a: approx. l. 12.5 cm, max w. 8.6 cm (4 15/16 x 3 3/8 in.)
b: approx. l. 10.9 cm, max w. 5.6 cm (4 5/16 x 2 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch to Princeton University
Object Number
2011-147 a-b
Place Excavated
Turkey, Antioch on the Orontes
Inscription
According to Sigel and Hollmann's report of 7 Sept, 2004: The inscription on the interior begins with an invocation to the "Begetter of Light" and uses an archaizing opening typical of ancient hymns. The curse appears to be directed at an opponent or opponents in a lawsuit (line 4, exterior seems to contain the expression "[because] they wronged me," cf. tablet 3421-I45). One of the gods invokes is Kronos; the same god is invoked on tablet 3618-I62, and the epithet "adamantine" is found on both tablets. This is used on 3618-I62 in connection with Kronos' sickle, with which he cuts off his father's genitalia and with which he in turn is mutilated by his own son. The speaker in the tablet hands over the object of the curse to the powers of the underworld (line 11) and orders one of them to lay low (exterior, line 4) paralyze (exterior, line 5) him/them. A name in the genitive pl. (Mugdoniton, exterior line 6) is paralleled on tablet 4740 - I130 a-b, and may refer to a neighborhood in Antioch.
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
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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.).
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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. 97
