Across the areas of the world which were once part of the Roman Empire, lead ‘curse’ tablets have been recovered from places such as wells, rivers and springs. They were a method of communicating with the gods and usually contain requests for vengeance for slights or crimes suffered by the person making the curse.

The tablets are usually thin rectangular sheets of metal with text written on one side with a stylus-like point which have been rolled or folded with the inscription innermost. Some were pierced by nails, presumably for fixing to a wall or post before being deposited, and this explains the Latin name defixioby which they are often known (the verb defigeremeans both ‘to fasten’ and ‘to curse’).

In Britain most of these tablets appear to have been deposited at religious sites and temple complexes such as Uley in Gloucestershire, and Bath, where they are concentrated in the hot spring. Others have been found in similarly ‘watery’ locations such as rivers, ditches, and drains.