Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here there's an inscription attached
Speaker 1: to the wall of a tomb in the ancient Italian
Speaker 1: city of Pompeii. That's not honoring the deceased, far from it.
Speaker 1: It reads, in translation, stranger, stay a short while, if
Speaker 1: it is not too troublesome, and learn what to avoid.
Speaker 1: This man, who I hoped was a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: brought prosecutors to me and instigated proceedings. I am grateful
Speaker 1: to the gods and my innocence. I am free from
Speaker 1: all trouble. He who deceived us, may he not receive
Speaker 1: the household, gods nor the underworld. This perhaps petty piece
Speaker 1: of archaeological graffiti is known as a cursed tablet. It
Speaker 1: was written by an ex friend of the deceased and
Speaker 1: put on display for the whole city to read after
Speaker 1: his death. Though it might seem strange today, writing cursed
Speaker 1: tablets was a common practice in ancient Roman Greece. But
Speaker 1: what was the purpose of these objects, aside from the
Speaker 1: obvious and who was writing them? Today we're talking all
Speaker 1: things cursed tablets. A cursed tablets essentially did what the
Speaker 1: name implies they were objects, usually from ancient Greece and Rome,
Speaker 1: upon which somebody wrote a curse. For the article, this
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with Dr
Speaker 1: Stuart McKee, a scholar of Roman history at Durham University
Speaker 1: in the UK. He said, the standard definition is that
Speaker 1: their intention is to influence by supernatural means people and
Speaker 1: animals against their will. This definition was originally put forth
Speaker 1: by the late David Jordan's, former director of the Canadian Institute.
Speaker 1: In Greece. All sorts of objects, from shards of pottery
Speaker 1: to scraps of papyrus to graves could be turned into
Speaker 1: cursed tablets. McKee said There's one really cool one that
Speaker 1: was written on a lamp, but the most common curse
Speaker 1: tablets by far were written on thin scraps of lead.
Speaker 1: A lead is a byproduct of silver mining, which was
Speaker 1: a major source of wealth in ancient Greece and Rome,
Speaker 1: particularly in the Greek city state of Athens. This means
Speaker 1: that there was a lot of extra lead lying around
Speaker 1: at the time. The ancient Romans frequently used it as
Speaker 1: a cosmetic or to line their drinking vessels and pipes,
Speaker 1: which we know today to be a kind of curse
Speaker 1: in itself, as blood poisoning is no joke, but they
Speaker 1: also used it to inscribe messages, especially ones to the gods.
Speaker 1: A Scholars think that the choice of lead as a
Speaker 1: writing material was part practical a lead is soft and
Speaker 1: therefore easy to scratch marks into, but also part aesthetic
Speaker 1: has to works also spoke with Dr Britta Ager, a
Speaker 1: classicist at Arizona State University. She said, you get the
Speaker 1: sort of silvery fluid looking line against the oxidized surface
Speaker 1: of the metal. It just looks magical. Cursed tablets had
Speaker 1: bursts of popularity across Greek and Roman history, but when
Speaker 1: they were fashionable, they were ubiquitous across social classes and situations.
Speaker 1: Wealthy politicians would sometimes curse their political rivals or the
Speaker 1: opposing party in a legal battle. Working class folks would
Speaker 1: curse thieves, murderers, their crushes, or the chariot racing team
Speaker 1: that they wanted to lose. There are records of enslaved
Speaker 1: people using curses. The wealthy and educated could, of course
Speaker 1: hand right their own curses if they so chose, but
Speaker 1: many folks may have relied on a third party for
Speaker 1: their cursing needs. Ager said, if you weren't literate enough
Speaker 1: to write one of these, you could go to a
Speaker 1: professional who would do it for you. These local magicians
Speaker 1: acted kind of like contract attorneys, drafting up cursed templates
Speaker 1: for their clients and letting them fill in the blanks.
Speaker 1: Archaeologists have even found cursed tablets where the name of
Speaker 1: the person being cursed was slightly too long to fit
Speaker 1: in the blank. The letters had to be smooshed together
Speaker 1: as a result. And of course, where there are curses,
Speaker 1: there are counter curses. McKee described it as a sort
Speaker 1: of magical arms race. Amulets to ward off curses like
Speaker 1: the Evil Eye were and still are popular in many
Speaker 1: parts of the world. Some cursed tablets detailed protective measures
Speaker 1: in case the cursed person discovered the spell and decided
Speaker 1: to retaliate, and other cursed tablets even included clauses to
Speaker 1: ensure that the curse circumvented popular protective measures. So when
Speaker 1: did cursed tablets go out of fashion for good? The
Speaker 1: answer depends on how you look at it. By the
Speaker 1: fourth century, cursed tablets in the Roman Empire were becoming scarce.
Speaker 1: The answer depends on how you look at it. By
Speaker 1: the fourth century CE, cursed tablets in the Roman Empire
Speaker 1: were becoming scarce, McKee said. In some of the later
Speaker 1: Roman law codes from Constantine onward, you do sti to
Speaker 1: get much more heavy policing of religious options, and also,
Speaker 1: you know, culture changes. However, the basic human feelings powerlessness, frustration, jealousy,
Speaker 1: and anger that drove people to write cursed tablets never
Speaker 1: went away. Take for example, Twitter, which some would argue
Speaker 1: is absolutely cursed. Back in British, Twitter users took their
Speaker 1: political frustrations to the Internet in the immediate aftermath of
Speaker 1: the Panama Papers reveal. For several days, the hashtag curse
Speaker 1: David Cameron was trending, attached to messages like this one
Speaker 1: from user mr Tickle three, may every sock you wear
Speaker 1: be slightly rotated just enough for it to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Whether or not those Twitter users actually believed they were
Speaker 1: going to curse the then British Prime Minister, the message
Speaker 1: was clear this person had done harm and they wanted justice,
Speaker 1: be it divine or online. M In that sense, some
Speaker 1: key and Ager say, regardless of religious belief, we all
Speaker 1: still use curses, McKee said, it's only a short step
Speaker 1: from spreading malicious gossip about someone to writing a curse.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article ancient folks didn't
Speaker 1: have Twitter, But Boy did they have curse tablets on
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com written by Joanna Thompson. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang
Speaker 1: and Ramsey Young. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: into your favorite shows