Megan,
 
Although I have not heard of a hoe in a concealment, I suppose it is  
possible. When they concealed coins, scissors, knives, pins, and needles, they  
bent the items as part of the concealment ritual. If your hoe was not  bent 
in some way, there might be reason to question the interpretation (like  
maybe they were hiding a weapon or instrument of a crime). That said, the ritual 
 and meaning of the practice most likely evolved over time between Europe  
and  America. I would think that people continued a poorly explained  
ritual, rationalized it in a Christian context, and made do with what they  could 
find. Then there is the belief in "iron" and its magical properties. Some  
people from the Old World ascribed iron as a material that could repel or 
injure  otherworld spirits (depending on who you read). 
 
And I should point out that not all items concealed are for ritual magic  
(which, by the way, some authors spell "magick" to distinguish from the 
garden  variety of illustionists). I once worked with a crew on a 1830s vintage 
Mexican  era house in Old Town San Diego that yielded a cluster of a dozen or 
so old clay  marbles. Just about everyone on the crew interpreted this to 
mean a child hid a  sack of marbles under the dirt beneath the floorboards 
and the sack rotted. 
 
Since we are on the topic of concealments, I thought to ask if you found  
buried horse bones under the floorboards? In Wales, horse skulls were buried 
to  protect the future residents. In pre-Christian times, entire horses were 
buried,  but the practice evolved to burying skulls. Horses played an 
important role in  Celtic ideology.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
 
 
In a message dated 6/13/2009 2:14:52 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Greetings,

Has anyone encountered hoe blades or other iron tools  in concealed
contexts? I have one that was recovered concealed in the  framing for the
first floor ceiling, immediately south of a chimney. I have  done a fair
bit of reading on concealed ritual objects, and though I've  found
references to the uses of iron, and their placement near chimneys,  I
haven't found any reference to hoes or other relatively large  iron
objects.

Also, has anyone encountered dwellings that were built  by converting
existing outbuildings? The framing of the two-story dwelling  indicates
that it was built by converting a single story,  slope-roofed,
crudely-built outbuilding. The outbuilding was constructed  using
repurposed wood from some other building, as well as tree trunks,  several
of which retain their bark.

The questions are both regarding  the same context; the building appears to
have been converted to a dwelling  in the mid-1850s or so.

Regards,
Megan Springate,  RPA


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