”Keep it hidden, keep it warm“ was the instruction for these capsules of anti-evil from 17th century England. The reasons why are creepy—but often misunderstood.
This pale, reptilian-patterned jug was excavated from a 17th-century privy beneath Rochester Independent College in 2004 and rediscovered in 2021. Its eerie contents—a coin, copper nails, a tooth, and fine white-blonde hair—suggest it was once used as a ”witch bottle,“ part of a ritual to ward off suspected malevolent forces.The bottle was shorter and stouter than a wine bottle, with a slender neck, a jug handle, and a pale, reptilian skin pattern.
The idea of centuries-buried cocktails of superstition is enough to have anyone in an old English building side-eyeing the hearth. Yet the term “witch” may have distorted their true nature, especially given the limited evidence available to archaeologists., lecturer in folklore and history at the University of Hertfordshire. “Thousands of concealed shoes have been found, and only a hundred and something witch bottles.”objects—items designed to repel foes.
According to Houlbrook, the odd contents—bent pins, scraps, bones, urine—were based on “sympathetic magic,” an essential part of 17th-century medicine. The items symbolically linked the bottle to both the victim and the witch, so whatever “happened to the bottle happened to the witch,” she says. Despite the association with rural superstition, witch bottles weren’t limited to any one social class. “They’re definitely found in urban locations,” says Houlbrook, “Manor houses, ecclesiastical properties even. Not just humble yeoman cottages.”
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