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The Roman baths at Bath — the entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is post-Roman. 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. [1]
Those curse tablets targeted at thieves or other criminals may have been more public, and more acceptable; some scholars even refuse to apply the word "curse" to such "positive" texts, preferring expressions such as "judicial prayers". [11] In 1979/1980, the Bath curse tablets were found at the site of Aquae Sulis (now Bath in England). [12]
About 130 messages to Sulis scratched onto lead curse tablets have been recovered from the Sacred Spring by archaeologists. [4] Most of them were written in Latin, although one discovered was in Brythonic; they usually laid curses upon those whom the writer felt had done them wrong. This collection is the most important found in Britain.
Tomlin published the first translation of the curse-tablets from the Roman Baths at Aquae Sulis (Bath, UK) in 1988. [3] Tomlin translated the Bloomberg tablets , a collection of 405 wooden tablets inscribed with ink, found between 2010 and 2013, during excavations for the Bloomberg building in London. [ 4 ]
Sulis was the local goddess of the thermal springs that still feed the spa baths at Bath, which the Romans called Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). [5] Sulis was likely venerated as a healing divinity, whose sacred hot springs could cure physical or spiritual suffering and illness. [6]
Its presence led to the development of the small Roman urban settlement known as Aquae Sulis around the site. The Roman baths—designed for public bathing—were used until the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century AD. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the original Roman baths were in ruins a century later.
In 1979–80, the Bath curse tablets were found at the site of Aquae Sulis (now Bath in England). [37] All but one of the 130 tablets concerned the restitution of stolen goods. [ 38 ] Over 80 similar tablets have been discovered in and about the remains of a temple to Mercury nearby, at West Hill, Uley , [ 39 ] making south-western Britain one ...
Of those in Britain the vast majority are of type 5. The two largest concentrations are from the sacred springs at Aquae Sulis, where 130 examples are recorded, and at Uley, where over 140 examples are visible. The use of the curse-tablet in seeking restoration of stolen property is strong evidence of invoking divine power through a non ...