Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Roman Curse Unearthed at Leicester

Archaeologists working on a development site in Leicester have unearthed a tablet from the Roman period containing a curse.

Leicester was an important Roman town, linked by the Fosse Way to Lincoln and Exeter, and by the Via Devana to Colchester. It has the largest free standing Roman structure of a civil nature in Britain, known as the Jewry Wall.

The Shires shopping centre is being greatly extended. This is necessitating a considerable amount of demolition in connection with the new building.

Archaeologists have already discovered an enormous mediaeval burial ground, complete with a great many skeletons, and the foundations of an important Roman house used by visiting officials.

The recent find is a tablet with a plea to the god Maglus to find out who stole a cloak belonging to one Servandus, and to destroy the guilty party within nine days.

Furthermore, it furnishes a list of 18 suspects, which means that we now know a good number of names of Leicester residents in the Roman period.

Posted by colin on Saturday 2nd December, 2006 at 11:44am