Sometimes people see what they want to see, and not what is obviously right
in front of them. The excitement of a potentially significant find can
easily point an interpretation in the direction of what is wanted.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John R Hyett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 4:24 AM
Subject: Ritual concealment or other causes


I have just watched the TV program on ritual concealment that my Australian
colleague Iain Stuart mentioned in a recent post to this list and I am far
from convinced on the evidence presented. The major part of the program
concentrated on the idea of ritual concealment based on the find of a
child's shoe discovered during renovations of a house in Sydney. If I have
the story right the house was constructed in 1838 and the date of
manufacture of the shoe, a child's first walking shoe, was put between 1845
and 1850. Examinations of records led to the conclusion it belonged to a
child who was born in 1865 and later concealed in the wall cavity to ward
off evil spirits. No evidence of removal of panels to place the shoe within
the wall cavity was presented. When the renovator was talking of his
discovery of the shoe he mentioned that he also found some lace and
newspaper with it along with other unspecified debris. To me this sounds
very like a collection accumulated by a rat within the wall cavity. A rat
that invaded my house once attempted to drag a large piece of cloth through
the bars on a heater duct, a space of about 12mm (half an inch). We also
found a collection under a cupboard of a scarf, some of my wife's underwear,
a spoon and dry dog food amongst other things and I have seen a rat drag an
empty glass jar some 50 metres from where it was left, so I have no problem
with the idea of a rat dragging a small shoe into a wall cavity along with
other items. The other examples claimed as ritual concealment were dead cats
found within the wall cavity of houses. When the question was asked why cats
and never dogs the answer was that cats were known as the familiars of
witches and were entombed to keep witches at bay. Perhaps another
explanation is contained in those news items that crop up occasionally were
half a house wall has to be demolished to rescue a cat that has somehow
crawled into the wall cavity and got trapped. Dogs are a little more
sensible. I will admit that one of the cat corpses was unlikely to have
become trapped this way as it appeared to have been cut into several pieces
before being placed under the floor of a house but this sounds more like
someone desperately in need of psychiatric treatment rather than some
semi-religious ritual. Though perhaps the more rationalistic amongst the
profession may think that that diagnosis applies to anyone who thinks
entombing a cat, dead or alive, in the wall of a house would in any way be
beneficial. All this is not to say that ritual concealment of objects never
took place but rather we should look at other logical explanations first.
In passing, does the rumoured concealment of so many of the opponents of the
infamous Painters and Dockers Union amongst the concrete foundations of some
of Melbourne's 1960s buildings count as ritual concealment?