The Rich Buyer

The buyers were the famous Chute family and the owners of The Vyne, the estate which was built in the 16th century outside the Sherborne St John near Basingstoke in Hampshire, England. They had a special interest in the intricate objects and when they heard about the ring they offered him a handsome amount in return.

Showpiece In The Library

Even for years, the ring remained a  forgotten history by family and they had just put it as a showpiece for several years in their library. It was the year 1888 when Chaloner Chute, the descendant of the house had noticed the ring and published about it in the paper. Despite the inscribed letters it ignited the least interest among the archaeologists.

Another Discovery

And the story never caught the limelight and remained limited to the estate of Hameshphire just as the ring on the display in the library until in the 19th century.100 miles away from where the farmer had originally found the ring, the archeologist made another discovery that surely was going to put the archeologist at work.

The Defixio

In the initial years of 19th century, a group of archeologists was examining a place where a Roman temple of Nodens was situated and found a lead plaque which was a defixio or the, in other words, a cursed table. The writing on the table was in ancient Latin which was difficult for them to comprehend. What was written on it and whom did the curse refer to?

The Curse

The plaque had words engraved in Latin so with the help of an etymologist they tried decoding the text which said “For the god Nodens. Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one half it’s worth to Nodens. Among those named Senicianus permit no good health until it is returned to the temple of Nodens.”Was there any truth?

The Ring And The Curse Table

Many similarities were drawn between the ring and the curse table because the time period of both the incidences resembled. The name inscribed on the ring as well as on the table seemed to weave a story around each other as if they the curse was the result of someone’s wrath that has been caused by the ring. Was there any ground in that story or was it just a coincidence?