After conducting a first series of highly conclusive test measurements in October 2024 on the PSICHE beamline, two archaeologists from the Archaeology Department of the City of Orléans returned in December 2025 with the aim of accessing the texts inscribed on 17 Gallo-Roman curse tablets. Their five intense days of X-ray microtomography on PSICHE have already yielded a wealth of results.
In Orléans, as part of the redevelopment of the former Porte Madeleine hospital, a previously unknown Gallo-Roman necropolis was uncovered thanks to two successive archaeological excavation campaigns carried out between 2022 and 2025. During these excavations, 23 Gallo-Roman lead curse tablets (defixiones, from the Latin defixio, meaning curse or spell) were discovered in the graves, some folded in half, others completely rolled up on themselves.
In order to access the texts engraved on these fragile and precious objects, a few rare tablets were able to be opened, with great expertise and care and following a stabilisation treatment, by a conservator-restorer. However, in most cases, examination of the tablets showed that opening them manually would risk damaging them and, with them, the unique texts they bear.
Yet, using X-ray microtomography, the PSICHÉ beamline team succeeded in 2023 in virtually unrolling a 1,700-year-old lead talisman, revealing an engraved text in the Mandaean language that could then be deciphered.
Read more on the SOLEIL website
Image: At the PSICHÉ beamline workstation, meticulous preparation of the X-ray microtomography scan of a curse tablet
Credit: © SAVO, 2025