Bath curse tablets Bath curse tablets The Bath curse tablets are a collection of about 130 Roman era curse tablets (or "defixiones" in Latin) discovered in 1979/1980 in the English city of Bath. The tablets invoke the intercession of the goddess Sulis Minerva in the return of stolen goods and to curse the perpetrators of the thefts. Inscribed mostly in British Latin, they have been used to attest to the everyday spoken vernacular of the Romano-British population of the second to fourth centuries A.D. The Roman baths and temple dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva in the English city of Bath (founded by
Aphanizomenon flos-aquae Aphanizomenon flos-aquae Aphanizomenon flos-aquae is a brackish and freshwater species of cyanobacteria found around the world, including the Baltic Sea and the Great Lakes. "Aphanizomenon flos-aquae" can form dense surface aggregations in freshwater (known as "cyanobacterial blooms"). These blooms occur in areas of high nutrient loading, historical or current. "Aphanizomenon flos-aquae" has both toxic and nontoxic forms. Most sources worldwide are toxic, containing both hepatic and neuroendotoxins. Most cyanobacteria (including "Aphanizomenon") produce BMAA, a neurotoxin amino acid implicated in ALS/Parkinsonism. Toxicity of "A. flos-aquae" has been reported in Canada, Germany and China. "Aphanizomenon flos-aquae" is known to produce endotoxins, the