Archaeologists have unearthed a series of 2,000-year-old magic spells in Serbia

From a Roman burial site in Serbia:

Researchers in eastern Serbia have discovered a series of magic spells etched onto tiny rolls of gold and silver, buried alongside the remains of humans who died almost 2,000 years ago. The incantations seem to invoke divine powers to do good or evil, but the researchers are still trying to translate exactly what they say, and what they were used for.

The burial site is near the modern-day city of Kostolac, which was the site of the Roman city Viminacium between the 1st and 6th century AD. It's estimated that the latest remains - and the spells - were buried around the 4th century AD.

"According to my knowledge, such tablets have never been found inscribed in gold anywhere. According to the Roman customs, gold was never put into graves." There's also evidence that the Roman city was in the middle of a religious shift during the 4th century, seeing as both Christian and pagan gods are called upon. "Opposing deities appear on these tablets, as if invoking both Christ and the Antichrist today, or Christ and pagan gods, and that is weird. This shows us that the process of converting to Christianity was slow," he added.

Source

Roman archaeology just keeps on giving!

That's pretty cool and strange. I'd love e to find out what thy all say and mean once they finish deciphering them.

a reply to: athousandlives

Interesting find op from the link

The alphabet is Greek, that much we know. The language is Aramaic - it's a Middle Eastern mystery to us," chief researcher Miomir Korac, from the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade, told Reuters. "We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," added one of the team, Ilija Dankovic.

It shouldn't be too hard for them to put it all together and translate

a reply to: athousandlives

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Viminacium was the base for reprisals against the Huns and then was the first Legionary Fortress to fall in the backlash unleashed by Attila.......in the 4th Century AD. I wonder what is no the curses?

a reply to: athousandlives

. "Opposing deities appear on these tablets, as if invoking both Christ and the Antichrist today, or Christ and pagan gods,

Looks like someone was covering all the bases, just in case. I would really like to see those translated.

Nice thread!

originally posted by: athousandlives
"Opposing deities appear on these tablets, as if invoking both Christ and the Antichrist today, or Christ and pagan gods, and that is weird."

Sounds dualistic, probably Gnostic. A lot of those sects were getting stamped out around the 4th century, after the Council of Nicaea, etc. Will be fascinating to read the translations.

a reply to: DAVID64

My guess is that at the time paganism was still around it still wasn't being associated with the devil, or at least not in full force like when the church later went all out against it. There was such a range of both good and dark deities.
It was the transitional period, and you pretty much could pick and choose what deity suited you best.

And here summons Cthulhu to end it for us in 2016!

a reply to: athousandlives

This looks like the beginning of one of those scary movies. I wouldn't read it.

What I am wondering is how do they know they are magic?sounds like assumption

What I am wondering is how do they know they are magic?sounds like assumption

originally posted by: Oldtimer2
What I am wondering is how do they know they are magic?sounds like assumption

They're amulets, which are for one of several different purposes. Although amulets can serve as clan identification, when they come inscribed with a lot of writing, they're spells. The fact that these are written on gold or silver indicates magic.

They could be copies of texts but - as we see in Egypt and elsewhere - writing was thought to be powerful magic and written spells were given to the dead (and the living) to protect them.

Heck, it's still a pagan tradition in some circles today.

"We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," added one of the team, Ilija Dankovic.

So what I'm wondering now is would this be demons by our standards? Or demons by theirs? Because that would make a whole lot of difference on the word when they could just be something like...powerful sprites whereas they would be demons by Christian definition.

Definitely exciting stuff though I would love to see and hear more!

Maybe they were buried for a reason, and now they just let something horrid out of a pit,

a reply to: WhisperingEarth

One of the best explanations I have heard is the dead Nephlim (giants) we find in the OT as well in other ME text .Some of their names are shared with the fallen watchers (angels) from 1st Enoch .Mike Heiser has a lot of info on the Unseen Realm .this first vid is a good basic one on demons and other entities referred to not only in the Bible but in other ancient text

originally posted by: Piggy315
That's pretty cool and strange. I'd love e to find out what thy all say and mean once they finish deciphering them.

Scutta malocchio! Ptu!

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Thank you for both videos I will get on watching those tonight. I have heard a lot of the book of enoch, have not read it but have played a game that dealt exactly with the book.

(If there are any other games want to give it a go it is this en.wikipedia.org...:_Ascension_of_the_Metatron It's not bad).

I'm just wondering now if we are rewriting things to suit a different agenda, but then it begs the question as to what exactly we are hearing is real or not.

originally posted by: WhisperingEarth

"We read the names of a few demons, that are connected to the territory of modern-day Syria," added one of the team, Ilija Dankovic.

So what I'm wondering now is would this be demons by our standards? Or demons by theirs? Because that would make a whole lot of difference on the word when they could just be something like...powerful sprites whereas they would be demons by Christian definition.

Definitely exciting stuff though I would love to see and hear more!

An excellent question and the answer is 'it depends on the culture.'

Your sense that we use 'demon' to mean 'powerful spirit' is correct - in Egyptology, the powerful spirits are lumped under the term 'demon' though they may be neutral or even positive. It's a holdover from the times when Very Christian Englishmen studied Ancient Egypt and classified not-deities (and some deities) as demons (this was before a lot of the hieroglyphs were translated.) In some cases, they even mistakenly tried to fit biblical scenes to tomb paintings that were thousands of years older.

I don't know anything about this culture, so I can't really speculate further than that.

a reply to: Byrd

Thank you for explaining that I had a small inkling that Christianity had a foothold in some of it; but wasn't too sure if it was back when translating or earlier than that. Though I find it interesting that you are able to say neutral or positive, I guess being so ingrained as a baptist being able to say positive with the title 'demon' seems quite taboo to me. I guess magic(k) would be in the same way, but I'm assuming that can be attributed with lack of science in that way versus the accounts of demons.

From a link in the article, if you haven't seen it, another curse found in a dig in Leicester 10 years ago:

Leicester curse tablets found in 2006

One of the most interesting finds from a site on Vine Street was a ‘curse’ tablet – a sheet of lead inscribed in the second or third century AD and intended to invoke the assistance of a chosen god.
It has been translated by a specialist at Oxford University, and reads: 'To the god Maglus, I give the wrongdoer who stole the cloak of Servandus. Silvester, Riomandus (etc.) ... that he destroy him before the ninth day, the person who stole the cloak of Servandus…' Then follows a list of the names of 18 or 19 suspects.
What happened to them is not recorded. Before the discovery of this object, archaeologists only knew of the names of three or four of the inhabitants of Roman Leicester, so the find is of great significance.

18 or 19 suspects, lol, this guy had many enemies, or a really amazing cloak....
Anyone know of this God Maglus?
I can't find any info on it, maybe just a local minor God of the time?