AbstrAct The custom of placing a igure representing the target person of a curse into a small lead cofin emerged at the turn of the 5 th /4 th century BC. Beside Athens, the practice was common in the northern region of the Black Sea. Apart from 18 pieces found in Rome (4 th century), tiny lead containers have been reported only from Hadrumetum and Carthage. The container believed to be found in Carthage is identical with the one from Hadrumetum. The present paper attempts to reconstruct the story of this container. Key Words: Defixio, Lead containers, anna Perenna, MagicaL figures, L. carton, a. audoLLent, f. icard. MAldiciones en lA cAjA resuMen La costumbre de colocar una igura que represente la persona objetivo de una maldición en una pequeña caja de bronce surgió en el tránsito del siglo V/IV a.C. Junto con Atenas, la práctica fue habitual en la región norte del Mar Negro. Aparte de 18 piezas encontradas en Roma (siglo IV), diminutos contenedores de bronce se han documentado sólo procedentes de Hadrumentum y Cartago. El contenedor que se cree haber encontrado en Cartago es idéntico a uno de Hadrumentum. Este artículo trata de reconstruir su historia. PAlAbrAs clAve: Defixio, contenedores de bronce, anna Perenna, figuras Mágicas, L. carton, a. audoLLent, f. icard. 201 MHNH, 13 (2013) 201-206 ISSN: 1578-4517 curses in the box GyörGy néMeth ELTE University, Budapest Received: 8th June 2013 Accepted: 17th August 2013 The custom of placing voodoo dolls into tiny lead cofins emerged around 400 BC in Athens 1 . In two adjacent graves of the Kerameikos cemetery, excavations revealed four little lead boxes, one of which was inscribed with names of the oppo- nents of Lysias the orator 2 . A ifth box, also dated to 4 th century BC, was found in 1 Summarized by C. faraone, 1991, 200–205. C. The list of faraone supplemented by A. avraM et al., 2007, 416–420. I owe a debt of gratitude to Mme Chantal LaMesch, the conservateur of the Musée Bargoin, for her support of my research. This study forms part of OTKA [Hungarian Scientiic Research Fund] programme no. K 81332 (Ancient magic, parallel researches: Curse tablets and magic gems), and the Zaragoza project titled Espacios de penumbra: Cartografía de la actividad magico-religiosa en el Occidente del Imperio romano (Ref. FFI 2008–01511 / FISO). 2 C. faraone 1991, 201, Nr. 5–6; A. avraM et al. 2007, 419, Nr. 1–3. For the opponents of Lysias see A. avraM et al. 2007, 419, Nr. 1.