Curse Of The Dancer – Mysterious 1,500-Year-Old Tablet Finally Deciphered

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - In the 1950s, archaeologists found a mysterious ancient tablet in the ruins of the theatre in Caesarea Maritima, Israel, built by King Herod the Great around the year 22 B.C.

The 1,500-year-old Greek tablet, known as the Curse Of The Dancer contained an inscription that scientists have been unable to decipher. Now, after almost 70 years we have finally learned the truth about the message inscribed on the tablet.

Attilio Mastrocinque, a Professor and historian from the University of Verona in Italy, used an advanced imaging technique to better reveal the tablet's surface features. By doing so, Mastrocinque managed to discover the tablet contains a curse against a famous dancer named Manna, who made have lived in the ancient city.

An inscription on an ancient Greek tablet has finally been translated nearly 70 years after it was unearthed. The ancient message is a curse against a famous dancer. Credit: Attilio Mastrocinque

The curse, written by another ancient is 110 lines in length. According to Mastrocinque’s study, it obvious the dancer who wrote the curse called on several demons to harm Manna.

'Tie the feet together, hinder the dance of Manna,' it read in Greek.

'Bind down the eyes, the hands, the feet, which should be slack for Manna when he will dance in the theatre.'

To make the curse as powerful as possible, the ancient backstabber asked for help from several deities, including Thoth, an ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, science, literature, writing, and keeper of sacred books.

Also invoked are the 'demons of the sky, demons of the air, demons of the earth, underworld demons, demons of the sea, of the rivers [and] demons of the springs.'

'Twist, darken, bind down, bind down together the eyes [of Manna]', the inscription continues — imploring that 'he should move slowly and lose his equilibrium' and 'should be bent and unseemly.'

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The fact that the ancient tablet was discovered in the ruins of a prestigious theatre led Mastrocinque to believe Manna “must have been a famous dancer”, and in a therefore in the dance competition 'the prize would have been considerable, not to mention the fame and reputation that were at stake”.

The curse tablet dates back to the 6th century, when the Byzantine Empire controlled the city and Mastrocinque believes that the writer and his intended victim, Manna, belonged to warring factions.

These groups dominated by the 'blues' and the 'greens' fostered intense rivalries, he explained, which could on occasion lead to public riots.

“This [curse tablet], along with many others issued in the late imperial period and in the early Middle Ages, confirms that the Christianization of the Roman Empire did not stop the maleficent magical arts,' wrote Professor Mastrocinque.

“On the contrary, these increasingly spread and became more sophisticated.”

God Thoth was highly venerated in the Egyptian pantheon and had many names and titles. Credit: Public Domain

Curse tablets were very common in the ancient world. People were convinced one could convey messages to influential gods and spirits, usually asking them for victory over an enemy by ‘binding them up’ in some kind of dreadful trouble.

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Most ancient civilizations used some kind of curse tablets, many of them have been discovered in Greece and Italy. For over 700 years, ancient Romans bought a variety of defixiones – curse tablets to cast evil spells on basically anyone and anything.

Ancient Romans believed in the power of spells and thought that these magical curse tablets would actually help them to destroy their enemies. But you have to act quickly. It was vital to buy the curse tablet before your enemy came up with the same idea.

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer