Ancient lead tablet engraved with 'curse' that tore apart a medieval couple's love discovered

Recently, while exploring a construction site in northern Germany, archaeologists unearthed a puzzling artifact believed to date back to the 15th century: a medieval "curse tablet" inscribed with an inscription aimed at two people.

Specifically, this plaque is made from a small piece of lead, when found it was rolled up and hidden in an "inconspicuous" location under a toilet in Rostock, a coastal city where the construction of a town hall is underway. Usually, objects containing curses will always be hidden in difficult-to-find locations so that "the cursed do not discover the disaster that is about to happen to them" , the mysterious magic can silently harm the target.

New curse tablet discovered in Germany.

When researchers opened the metal plate, they found a handwritten message in Gothic script. After deciphering the letter, experts concluded that it could be a curse directed at a woman named Taleke and a man named Hinrik . The words "sathanas Taleke belzebuk hinrik berith" were a spell to summon Satan and the evil spirit Berith to bring misfortune to the Taleke - Hinrik couple, for some reason.

The question is: "Did someone want to separate Taleke and Heinrich? Was this a hated, jealous love affair, where one of them had to leave?" Jörg Ansorge, head of the excavation project, said the tablet was "really a very special find." He noted that curse tablets like the one found in Rostock are often associated with ancient Greece and Rome. "Curse tablets have actually been known since ancient times in the Greek and Roman area, that is, from around 800 BC to AD 600," Ansorge said. "On the other hand, our find could date back to the 15th century ," he added.

Previously, a 1,500-year-old lead tablet was found summoning demons to depose a rival dancer; 2,400-year-old tablets in Athens called on the gods of the underworld to harm a group of tavern keepers;.