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A Curse Tablet Found Under a Dutch Town Square Carries a Greek Spell in Egyptian Style
A small lead tablet found beneath Heerlen’s town hall square was meant to do harm. Nearly 1,800 years later, its scratched Greek words are revealing how Egyptian-style magic reached Rome’s northern frontier. Researchers at Heidelberg University have deciphered the inscription on the Roman-period curse tablet, discovered in the Dutch municipality of Heerlen. In antiquity, the…
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Roman Board Game Mystery Solved: AI Reveals 1,700-Year-Old Strategy Game in the Netherlands
For more than a century, a carved limestone slab from the Dutch city of Heerlen sat quietly in a museum collection. Now, artificial intelligence has revealed that it was not decoration. It was a game. Researchers have reconstructed the rules of an unknown Roman-period board game carved into stone nearly 1,700 years ago — and…