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[ad_1] Archaeologists probing a construction site in northern Germany recently unearthed a cryptic artifact that they believe dates back to the 15th century: a medieval "curse tablet," with an inscription seemingly directed at two specific people. The tablet was made from a small slab of lead, which was rolled up and "inconspicuous" when archaeologists discovered it beneath a latrine at the site in Rostock, a coastal city where construction for a town hall building was underway, the city said in a translated  news release .  Curse tablets were often hidden in places "where they were difficult or impossible to find" so "the cursed ones shouldn't find out about the impending disaster," according to the release, which added that obscurity meant the tablet's "damaging magic could therefore unfold in peace." The medieval slab of lead is inscribed with faint Gothic lettering.

[ad_1] A letter written by a Roman emperor helped lead a team of archaeologists to an ancient temple that "adds significant insights into the social changes" from pagan beliefs to Christianity in the Roman Empire, experts announced recently.  The lead archaeologist on the expedition, Douglas Boin, Ph.D., announced the "monumental discovery" at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, according to a news release from St. Louis University, where Boin is a professor of history.  Boin said he and his team discovered "three walls of a monumental structure" that appears to have been a Roman temple from the Constantine era, which ranged from A.D. 280 to 337. During Emperor Constantine's rule of the empire, he made the persecution of Christians illegal and bankrolled church-building projects, among other efforts, helping usher in the spread of the religion throughout the empire, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica . 

[ad_1] Cairo — Egyptian archaeologists who have spent years meticulously excavating a site amid the ancient ruins of Saqqara, near Cairo, announced a number of major discoveries on Thursday dating to the fifth and sixth dynasties of Egypt's "Old Kingdom," more than 4,000 years ago. One of the most important was a large, rectangular limestone sarcophagus found at the bottom of a vertical shaft about 50 feet deep. "The sarcophagus was about 45 tons and the lid was about 5 tons," Dr. Zahi Hawass, the director of the Egyptian excavation team at the Gisr el-Mudir site in the ancient city of Saqqara, told CBS News. Renowned Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass peers into a sarcophagus found at the bottom of a deep vertical shaft in Saqqara, near Cairo, in a photo shared with CBS News on January 26, 2023, by Ali Abu Desheesh, one of the archaeologists on Hawass' team.  Courtesy o