Contextualizing the Curse Tablets of Roman Carthage Samantha M Taylor

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Samantha M., author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Classical Studies., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

0293.

0318.

0434.

0579.

Local Subjects:

0293.

0318.

0434.

0579.

Physical Description:

1 electronic resource (276 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 87-07A

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2025

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this dissertation, I address a gap in the scholarship concerning the contextualization of curse tablets from Roman North Africa. Carthage, the capital of the Roman province Africa Proconsularis, has produced one of the richest and most diverse collections of curse tablets, spanning language and categorical boundaries and dating to the 2nd to 4th centuries CE. Drawing on scholarship that demonstrates the importance of space and place for ancient religious activity, I analyze the textual features traditionally investigated by scholarship while considering the city's social fabric, in relation to the physical sites of deposition. I re-examine excavation reports from the late 19th and 20th centuries, finding new details concerning the find contexts of the curse tablets which elucidate patterns of choices made by ancient practitioners. I argue that the deposition sites were imbued with ritualized meaning through a localized interpretation and interaction with the space, as supported by evidence of inscribing tablets on site. Each of my chapters concentrates on a find context where the curse tablets were discovered in Carthage and a curse category. Chapter One argues that the choice to deposit legal curse tablets among the remains of imperial servants associated with the imperial administration would have held special significance for cursing practitioners. Chapter Two examines the deposition sites and curses of the two major sports venues of Carthage, the amphitheater and the circus. One key discovery from this chapter is the identification of the deposition site of the venator curses in the amphitheater. Chapter Three analyzes the chariot curses from the Roman imperial cemetery, Bir el Djebbana, many of which were deposited into the same two graves, and through an analysis of the curses' physical and textual features, finds that different practitioners using distinct cursing traditions were converging at the same deposition sites, much like the venator curses in the amphitheater and the chariot curses in the circus. I conclude that the practitioners' choices were certainly conversant with the magical traditions they employed, but, ultimately, they were determined by local context and motive

Notes:

Advisors: Struck, Peter Committee members: Bowes, Kimberly; Wilker, Julia

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-07, Section: A.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2025

Vendor supplied data

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798276005997

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license