I was watching some Russell Howard stand-up the other night. He was sharing a theory that before the internet offered people anonymous ways to vent their anger at the world, people probably fastened messages of hate to pigeons and sent them off into the sky. Yes, probably.
It reminded me of the Romans’ ‘curse tablets’, which I learned about in Bath a few weeks ago. The Romans used to write curses (“The thief who stole this, may you consume his blood and take it away”) on square sheets of lead/pewter and deposit them in places where ‘only the Gods would see them’. Below is just such a curse tablet, found in the reservoir of the Roman Baths.
It’s a bit like tying it to a pigeon or shouting it in the comments section of a blog under ‘guest’.
“After writing the tablet was folded or rolled and the ends of the sheet were tucked over, making the document legible to the god alone.”
