ORLÉANS, FRANCE—According to a Live Science report, Roman graves were discovered during the excavation of the site of an eighteenth-century hospital in northwestern France by researchers from the Orléans Archaeology Service. More than 60 burials, all containing the remains of men, had been placed in a row situated along a wall. The researchers found traces of painted wooden coffins in some of the graves, in addition to 21 curse tablets. The tablets are thin pieces of rolled lead inscribed with messages for the gods, then pierced with a nail and placed in a grave or a well. One of the tablets from the cemetery, found between the legs of a man who had also been buried with a vase and several coins, has been virtually unrolled with reflectance transformation imaging. Its Latin inscription was accompanied by several words written in Gaulish, a Celtic language. Pierre-Yves Lambert of the French National Center for Scientific Research suggests that this tablet was dedicated to Mars Rigisamu, Gaulish for “Mars the Royal,” the Roman god of war. Several people were also named in the inscription as targets of the curse. X-ray tomography is now being used to examine and virtually unroll a second curse tablet from the cemetery. To read about horse burials uncovered in central France that date to between 100 b.c. and a.d. 100, go to "Gallic Steeds."
