Witch bottle

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Witches bottle ( Bartmannskrug , around 1650)

Witch bottles were a common phenomenon in the British Isles in the 16th and 17th centuries . To protect themselves from witches , people buried stoneware or glass bottles into which they stuck nails , fingernails , human urine and other objects and then corked them. So far, archaeologists have found around 200 copies of such witch bottles. In 2009, an intact specimen was found for the first time during construction work in London (Greenwich).

literature

  • Ralph Merrifield: Witch Bottles and Magical Jugs , in: Folklore 66, No. 1/1955, pp. 195-207.
  • Ralph Merrifield: Charms against witchcraft , in: ders., The Archeology of Ritual and Magic, New York 1987, pp. 159-183.
  • Nigel Pennick: Secrets of East Anglican Magic , London 1995.
  • Jason Semmens: The Usage of Witch-Bottles and Apotropaic Charms in Cornwall , in: Old Cornwall 12, No. 6/2000, pp. 25-30.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archaeologists find intact witch bottle Spiegel-Online for the first time on June 9, 2009