Bibliography: source editions and further reading

As well as Uley, the website also presents editions of tablets from other temples around the Severn estuary at Lydney, Brean Down and Pagans Hill, Leuntwardine, Chesterton, Marlborough, Wanborough and the Hamble estuary, as well as tablets from southern Britain without a certain provenance. The following pages list and acknowledge the published sources from which these are taken and describe any modifications made to the texts. A supplementary list is provided of all other curse tablets and other ‘magical documents’ from Roman Britain from which texts have been published up to 2002.


Sources of tablets in this website

Uley, Gloucestershire (The numbers given below are those used by Roger Tomlin in his 1993 report on the tablets published in the excavation volume).

Uley 1-5

Tomlin, R.S.O. 1993 Votive objects: the inscribed lead tablets, in Woodward, A. and Leach, P. The Uley Shrines. Excavation of a ritual complex on West Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, 1977-79, London: English Heritage, 113-130 (nos.1-5)

 

Uley 43

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1989. Roman Britain in 1988? Britannia 20, 329-31, No. 3

 

Uley 72

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1992. Roman Britain in 1991? Britannia 23, 310-311, no. 5

 

Uley 86

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1993. Roman Britain in 1992? Britannia 24, 310-11 no. 1

Uley 33, 49, 55, 76

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1995. Roman Britain in 1994? Britannia 26, 371-379, nos1-4. 4

Uley 80

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1996. Roman Britain in 1995? Britannia 27, 439-441, no. 1

 

Uley 50

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1998. Roman Britain in 1997? Britannia 29, 433-434, no. 1

 

Brean Down, Somerset

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1986. Roman Britain in 1985, Britannia 17, 433-435, no. 6

 

Caerleon, Gwent

RIB 323 (including addenda to the 2nd edition)

 

Chesterton, Warwickshire

RIB 243

M.W.C.Hassall, R.S.O.Tomlin 1989. Roman Britain in 1988, Britannia 20, 344-345, addenda et corrigenda (a)

 

 

Gloucestershire/Avon (No Provenance A)

Hassall M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1991. Roman Britain in 1990, Britannia 22, 293-295, no. 1

 

Hamble, Hampshire

Hassall M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1997. Roman Britain in 1996, Britannia 28, 455-457, no. 1

Leintwardine, Hereford and Worcester

Wright, R.P. 1969. Roman Britain in 1968, JRS 59, 241, no. 31

Lydney, Gloucestershire

RIB 306 (with Adams, J. N. 1998. Two notes on RIB, ZPE 123, 235-236)

 

 

Marlborough, Wiltshire

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1998. Roman Britain in 1997, Britannia 29, 375-386, no. 3

Pagans Hill, Avon

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1984. Roman Britain in 1983, Britannia 15, 336-341, nos. 7-9

Southern Britain (No Provenance B)

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1988. Roman Britain in 1987, Britannia 19, 488-490, no. 3

Wanborough, Wiltshire

Rea, J. 1972. Roman Britain in 1971. Appendix: a lead tablet from Wanborough, Wiltshire, Britannia, 3, 363-67


Notes on the use of these texts

New cross-references: Where publications refer to other texts also included in the website, the bibliographic reference has been replaced with a link to that text. The bibliographic references can be found in the metadata or in the list of published tablets below. Cross-references to tablets from Bath have been given the correct Tab. Sulis number.

Modifications to texts etc: Modifications to texts, translations or commentaries have only been made where they have been proposed or referred to in the addenda and corrigenda to RIB (Roger Tomlin) or in the round-up of epigraphic discoveries for Roman Britain published in Britannia. Thus modifications have been made to the following four texts

Lydney (RIB 306):The notes have been revised following the comments of J. N. Adams. (J.N. Adams, ‘Two notes on RIB’, ZPE123 (1998): 235-6)

Chesterton (RIB 243):The texts and the notes incorporates the additional readings offered by Roger Tomlin (M.W.C.Hassall, R.S.O.Tomlin 1989. Roman Britain in 1988, Britannia 20, 344-345, (RIB, addenda et corrigenda to the second edition (a))

Caerleon (RIB 323):The texts and the notes incorporates the additional readings reported by Roger Tomlin (RIB addenda and corrigenda.

Pagan’s Hill No. 7 (Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1984. Roman Britain in 1983, Britannia 15, 336-341, nos. 7-9): The note to line XX incorporates the revision proposed by Roger Tomlin(Hassall, M.W.C. and R.S.O. Tomlin, ‘Roman Britain in 1990’, Britannia 22 (1991): 309, addenda, (d))

Conventions: Differing conventions used by different editors where possible have been made consistent. See conventions


Further Reading

Other published curse tablets from Roman Britain: The list excludes tablets of which texts are so far unpublished and inscribed pieces of lead which are not certainly curse tablets. The numbers in brackets indicates the numbers of published texts or pseudo-texts from an individual location. A list of other published magical documents from Roman Britain is appended.

Baldock, Hertfordshire (1)

 

RIB 221

Bath, Somerset (c.120)

 

Cunliffe, B. and Tomlin, R. 1988. The temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath.Vol 2. The finds from the sacred spring Oxford: OUCA

 

Tomlin, R. S. O. 1994. Vinisius to Nigra. Evidence from Oxford of Christianity in Roman Britain, ZPE 100, 93-108

 

Brandon, Norfolk (1)

 

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1994 Roman Britain in 1993? Britannia 25, 293-295, no. 1

 

Braughing, Hertfordshire (1)

Tomlin, R.S.O. 1988. Inscribed lead object, in Potter, T. and Trow, S. Puckeridge-Braughing, Herts. The Ermine Street Excavation 1971-1972, Hertfordshire Archaeology, 10, 68-69

 

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk (1)

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1982. Roman Britain in 1981, Britannia 13, 407-409, no.9

Eccles, Kent (1)

 

Tomlin, R.S.O. 1985. A late Roman defixio (curse tablet) from the Eccles  villa, Archaeologia Cantiana, 102, 19-25

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1986. Roman Britain in 1985, Britannia 17, 428-429, no. 2

Hassall, M.C.W. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1996. Roman Britain in 1995, Britannia 27, 457, (e)

 

 

Harlow, Essex (1)

Wright, R.P. and Hassall, M.W.C. 1973. Roman Britain in 1972, Britannia 4, 325, no. 3

 

Kelvedon, Essex (1)

Wright R.P. 1958. Roman Britain in 1957, JRS 48, 150, no. 3

 

London (4)

RIB 6 (Mansion House)

RIB7 (Telegraph St, Moorgate)

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1987. Roman Britain  in 1986, Britannia 18, 360-364, no. 1 (London Bridge, north foreshore)

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1992. Roman Britain in 1991, Britannia 23, 309-310, no. 4 (Southwark, Union Street)

Ratcliffe on Soar, Nottinghamshire (2)

Turner, E. G. 1963. A curse tablet from Nottinghamshire, JRS, 53, 122-4

 

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1993. Roman Britain in 1992, Britannia 24, 310-314, no. 2

 

Thetford, Norfolk (1)

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1982. Roman Britain in 1981? Britannia 13, 410, no. 10

Weeting with Broomhill, Norfolk (1)

Hassall, M.W.C. and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1994. Roman Britain in 1993? Britannia 25, 296-297, no. 2


Other magical documents from Roman Britain

Caernarvon (1) (amulet on gold leaf)

RIB 436

Kotansky, Amulets, No. 2

 

West Deeping, Lincolnshire (1) (amulet on lead sheet)

Hassall, M.C.W.  and Tomlin, R.S.O. 1996. Roman Britain in 1995, Britannia 27, 443-445, no. 10

Tomlin, R.S.O. 1997. A Fourth-Century Uterine Phylactery in Latin from Roman Britain, ZPE 115, 291-4

Wood Eaton, Oxfordshire (1) (amulet on gold leaf)

 

Wright R.P. 1970. Roman Britain in 1969, Britannia 1, 305, no. 1 (amulet on gold leaf)

Kotansky, Amulets, No. 3

 

Old Railway Station, York (1) (amulet on gold leaf)

RIB 706

Kotansky, Amulets, No. 1