Archaeologists have found a 2300-year-old ceramic vessel filled with the bones of a dismembered chicken. He was part of an ancient curse that was supposed to kill and paralyze 55 people.
Scientists have discovered a jug and a coin under the floor of a classic Agora commercial building used by ancient craftsmen. Let us remind you that Agora is a market square in the ancient Greek policies, which was a place for general civic meetings (which were also called agora in the place of the event). The pot reportedly contained the dismembered head and lower limbs of a young chicken. The research results are published in the journal Hesperia.
It is noted that around 300 BC, the people who placed the curse also pierced the vessel with a large iron nail.
All the outer surfaces of the jug were originally covered with text. Archaeologists have discovered that more than 55 names were once written on it. Parts of the nail and chicken probably played a role in the curse, scientists note. Nails are commonly found in ancient rituals with ancient curses and symbolically immobilize or restrict the movement of the victims of the curse.
The authors of the curse may have wanted to convey the “helplessness and inability of the chicken to protect itself” to the people whose names are written on the bank, scientists say. The presence of the chicken’s head and drumsticks in the jar suggests that “by twisting and piercing the chicken’s head and drumsticks, the authors of the curse sought to incapacitate the same body parts of their victims.”
