On 28th November OxTalks will move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events' (full details are available on the Staff Gateway).
There will be an OxTalks freeze beginning on Friday 14th November. This means you will need to publish any of your known events to OxTalks by then as there will be no facility to publish or edit events in that fortnight. During the freeze, all events will be migrated to the new Oxford Events site. It will still be possible to view events on OxTalks during this time.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Silencing women was the rule in Roman times as voice was the marker of male superiority. But in the Roman Empire, the framework of speech underwent change. Gossip could result in false allegations and lead to trial. Female muteness may have served women well as a skill. Before the trial or to avoid it, litigants asked the specialist of silence to cut out dangerous tongues. Who were these experts? A Gaulish source, the so-called Plomb du Larzac, a lead curse tablet dated to 100 AD, talks about a fight of witches in a judicial context. The interpretation of the text is difficult since it is written in Gaulish. Comparing it with Ovid’s Metamorphoses may promote the idea of a female expertise in the magic of silence.
