Archaeological excavations at the site of the former Porte Madeleine hospital in Orléans have uncovered 21 curse tablets written in Gaulish, which are now being deciphered by scientists.
Since late January 2022, archaeologists from Orléans have been working alongside the rehabilitation of the old hospital, which is set to become the new Porte Madeleine University in 2026. The site has revealed a large necropolis, along with the curse tablets dating to the late 1st century AD.
Matthieu Loeuillet, an archeo-anthropologist, noted that such curse tablets are not unique to the Gauls but were common in the Roman world, dating back to ancient Greece. A total of 21 tablets were extracted from the necropolis, buried alongside the deceased, typically serving as prayers directed to underworld deities.
The preservation quality of the tablets surprised the archaeologists. These lead plates, approximately twenty centimeters long, are often folded and require careful handling after centuries underground. Julien Courtois, an archaeologist for Orléans, detailed the meticulous protocol for their manipulation to prevent degradation.
The process includes tomography, a 3D radiography method that allows extraction of essential information without physical handling. Following this, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) is employed to capture photographs with varying light projections, revealing fine incisions that form characters and words.
Deciphering the inscriptions in Gaulish poses another challenge, as the language is entirely extinct with limited written records. Courtois stated that parallels must be drawn with related languages like Old Breton and Old Gaelic to identify similarities.
Among the curse tablets, there is a series of names with Roman and Latin resonance, although the reasons behind the curses remain unclear. Other Gaulish writings found in France also provide comparative insights, indicating similar magical formulas used hundreds of kilometers apart.
Despite advancements in scientific and linguistic understanding, Loeuillet and Courtois emphasize that it will take years to fully interpret the necropolis, its graves, and the numerous curse tablets.