The inscription is in two hands, labelled
M and
N (
N being the later, responsible for deleting parts of the original text.) The text of
N is preserved in its entirety, on the six first lines on side
b of the second fragment; parts of the original text of
M have been lost.
Robert Marichal identifies
M as a "habitual" scribe, perhaps a professional, while the writing of
N is inexpert and laborious. The text contains a curse against one Severa Tertionicna and a group of women, presumably her followers.
Adsagsona seems to be the name of the principal goddess invoked for the purposes of the curse. A total of eleven or twelve names of women who were to be cursed alongside Severa Tertionicna have been preserved; most of these are identified by their given name plus a specification of a relation, identified either by one of their parents ("daughter of"), or one of their children ("mother of"), or as
dona (of unclear significance, apparently "lady of", but Lambert suggested "wetnurse of" and Lejeune suggested "heiress of"). The list of names is: :1. Bano[na] Flatucias :2. Paulla dona Potiti[us] :3. Aia duχtir Adiegias :4. Potita, m[atir] Paullias :5. Seuera du[χtir] Valentos do(n)a Paulli[us] :6. Adiega matir Aiias :7. Potita dona Primius [...] Abesias :[8. Eiotinios?] :9. Ruficna Casta dona [Ba]nonus :10. Diligentim Vlationicnom :11. Aucitioni(m) materem Potiti :12. Vlatucia mat[ir] Banonias Some of the women in the list seem to be related to one another; Lejeune suggested that this does not necessarily mean that they are biological mothers and daughters, but that the tablet might instead reveal the structure of the sorceresses' organisation, where an older member would initiate a younger novice, and the two women would be considered "mother" and "daughter" for the purposes of their order. Orel (
Studia Celtica 31, 1997) pointed out that
dona is always followed by a proper name in
-ius, while
matir and
duχtir are followed by forms in
-ias, i.e. genitive singular), suggesting that the
-ius may represent the instrumental plural case (<
-ōis), indicating clans or families rather than individuals. Based on this hypothesis, Orel makes out five such (magical) "clans" from the list: :A: Rufena Casta (9); daughter Banona (1) and mother Flatucia (12) :B: daughter Aia (3) and mother Adiega (6) :C: Severa (5); daughter Paulla (2), mother Potita (4) and mother's mother Abesa :D: daughter Severa (5), mother Valenta :E: Potita (7); Prima ==Notes==