1861 writer citing the practice as an example of ignorant superstition ...

"While on the subject of Dorkings, we may as well advise any one who may 
breed a very good pen of rose-combed chickens to take care of them. 
There are yet people who doubt the purity of them, but the same nail up 
carefully-concealed horseshoes in different parts of their houses, and 
in solitary spots like to put a running stream between themselves and an 
old woman." ~ 1861, Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, 
Vol. 1, p 207, Johnson & Hogg, London.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/mhs/mhs17.htm
The Magic of the Horseshoe: The Magic Of The Horse-shoe: XIV. The 
Position Of The Horse-shoe As A Protector Of Buildings


  XIV. THE POSITION OF THE HORSE-SHOE AS A PROTECTOR OF BUILDINGS

It has been supposed that the horse-shoe is placed at the outer entrance 
to a building because of an ancient Saxon superstition that witches were 
unable successfully to practice their wiles upon persons in the open 
air. The horse-shoe effectively bars the ingress of witches and evil 
spirits, but an entrance once obtained by these creatures, it is 
powerless to expel them. Therefore the horse-shoe within doors loses 
much of its efficacy, but is still an emblem of good luck.

Placed on the outside of the door, or above the entrance of a dwelling, 
or upon the threshold, the horseshoe is easily first among the 
inveterate foes of witches and devils generally.

Laugh if you will, who imps nor devils fear,
Whom death appals not, phantoms come not near;
Along whose nerves no quick vibrations dart,
As teeming twilight's shadowy offspring start;
Not yours to feel the joy with which I flew
To snatch the rusty, worn, but lucky shoe.
Oft have I heard them chattering at my door,
The hags whose dances beat the shrinking moor;
Oft have I sprung from nightmare-haunted rest,
And gasped an oro from my panting breast,
As forms that vanished ere the half-shut eye
With fright could open, from their revels fly.
Henceforth, good horse-shoe, vain shall be their ride
Their spells are baffled and their rage defied.

Edward Moor, in his "Oriental Fragments" (p. 455, London, 1834), relates 
having once, in company with a gang of urchins, nailed a donkey-shoe 
under the threshold of a poor woman in Suffolk who was suspected of 
sorcery. He and his youthful companions endeavored thus to keep her all 
night within doors, as witches cannot cross iron.

An English writer tells of having heard an animated discussion in the 
parlor of a London beer-shop as to whether it were preferable to nail a 
horse-shoe behind the door or upon the first doorstep; and instances of 
extraordinary good luck were mentioned as the direct result of the 
potency of the amulet in each position.

But there are weighty reasons for the selection of the front door, or 
the parts immediately connected with it, as the proper place for the 
display of horse-shoes as household guardians.

In the earliest historic times, and in primitive communities, the 
entrance of a dwelling was considered a sacred place; and in the opinion 
of eminent scholars who have made a study of the subject, the threshold 
was the first family altar. A peculiar reverence for the doorway and 
threshold prevails to-day in many parts of the world, as is evident from 
the numerous ceremonial rites in vogue among widely separated savage 
tribes and uncivilized peoples. Indeed, the custom of placing amulets 
and charms in and about the entrance-doors of houses, stables, and other 
buildings is almost universal. In Russia a cross is marked on the 
threshold to keep witches away. In Lithuania, when a house is being 
built, a wooden cross, or some article which has been handed down from 
past generations, is placed under the threshold. There, also, when a 
newly baptized child is being brought back from church, it is customary 
for its father to hold it for a while over the threshold, "so as to 
place the new member of the family under the protection of the domestic 
divinities." Sick children who are supposed to have been afflicted by an 
evil eye are washed on the threshold of their cottage, in order that 
with the help of the Penates who reside there, the malady may be driven 
out of doors.

Under the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found 
certain images of grotesque monsters, as, for example, a human form with 
the head of a lynx, and a lion's body with a man's head, which were 
intended as tutelary deities.

John Netten Radcliffe, in his "Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites" (p. 43, 
London, 1854), says that the horse-shoe superstition is a remnant or 
relic of the worship of household guardians or divinities,--a practice 
still in vogue among the natives of Ashantee, and also among the Bhutas 
of Hindostan. In some English counties, naturally perforated stones are 
hung behind the door; and in Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are 
whitewashed in order to terrify wandering spirits of evil. Whether 
successful or not for this purpose, the custom is certainly effective as 
a destroyer of the demoniac germs of certain diseases.

The French Canadians are not the least superstitious of mankind, neither 
do they wholly neglect to take due precautions against the admittance to 
their homes of evil spirits.

They do not answer "Entrez!" when a knock is heard at the door, but call 
out "Ouvrez!" This custom is said to have originated from a current 
tradition regarding a young woman who once answered "Entrez!" in 
response to a knock, whereupon the Devil promptly came in and carried 
her away. Where such legends find open-mouthed credence, it does not 
appear strange that horse-shoes and other talismans should be at a premium.

In Tuscany magical medicines are taken upon the threshold, which also 
plays an important part in sorcery. One reason assigned for this fact is 
that the threshold forms the line separating the outer world, where 
demons are rampant, from the domestic precincts, where human beings dwell.

One writer affirms it to be a fixed law in demonology that spirits 
cannot cross the threshold and enter a house unless previously invited 
to do so, but adds that there are many exceptions to this rule. The 
weight of evidence does not support this view, for mischievous fairies 
and witches are known to rudely disregard the laws of etiquette, and do 
not wait for an invitation to enter dwellings. This fact is, indeed, a 
chief raison d'être for the use of talismans at the entrance of habitations.

The residents of the beautiful Thuringian Forest region, in whose 
neighborhood these lines chanced to be penned, are wont to affix 
horse-shoes to the thresholds of their chamber-doors, lest some rude 
goblin enter and disturb their slumbers. But the fastidiousness of these 
sylvan folk is not content with an ordinary shoe, even though found on 
the road and venerable with rust; in order to serve its purpose as a 
talisman, a Thuringian horse-shoe must have been forged by a bachelor of 
wholesome life and good character, on Saint John's Eve.

In German households, the horse-shoe over the door is believed to afford 
protection against divers apparitions, as well as against the Devil, 
witchcraft, lightning, sickness, and evils of every sort.

The cross, symbol of the Christian faith, is the most potent of all 
talismans, but is seldom seen at the entrance of dwellings. In some 
Roman Catholic countries the crucifix is, indeed, everywhere 
conspicuous, not only in churches and shrines, but by the roadside, in 
fields, and on the outer ways of houses, but it is rarely placed at the 
front door. In Hungary, however, the Magyars mark with black chalk the 
figure of a cross upon their stable-doors, and also brand anew thereon 
the sacred emblem each year at Christmas time.

The respect paid by the inhabitants of Tibet to their household 
divinities somewhat resembles the worship of their Lares by the Romans 
of old, and finds a parallel in the honor accorded to the favorite 
amulet of Western civiezation, the horse-shoe.

The Tibetans set up above the entrances of their houses complex 
talismans, composed of various mystical objects, such as a ram's skull 
with horns attached, having displayed along the base of the skull pieces 
of carved wood representing a man and woman, a house, and other symbols; 
the idea being to deceive the demons, and to make them believe that 
these objects are the real dwelling and its inmates. The Tibetans 
believe that the demons are thus tricked, and that the wooden images are 
the victims of their mischievous designs.

Far away among the nomadic tribes of Turkestan, horse-shoes are 
occasionally seen nailed to the thresholds of dwellings in the vicinity 
of the ancient city of Merv; and within doors, near the entrances of 
these peculiar habitations, which resemble mammoth parrot cages, pieces 
of linen or calico, four or five inches square, are seen upon the felt 
wall-lining, to serve as receptacles for the free-will offerings of such 
wandering spirits as may pass the magic barriers of the horse-shoes.

In some regions there still prevails a time-honored custom of placing 
over the chief entrances of dwellings inscriptions, embodying usually a 
religious thought or exhortation. Sometimes, however, the sentence 
commends the house and its occupants to the care of the goddess Fortune, 
thus having a significance akin to that of the horse-shoe symbol. In the 
year 1892 the writer copied many inscriptions found above the doors of 
houses in northern Italy and Switzerland, some of them being written in 
Latin, others in German, French, Italian, and the Romansch dialect, 
current in the Engadine. Here, for example, is one from a house in the 
Swiss village of Bergun, the original being in German: "This house is in 
God's hand; May Good Luck come in, and Bad Luck stay out! 1673."

Many of these inscriptions are Biblical verses, which are here used as 
talismans, just as the pious Moslem employs sentences from the Koran.

Here, again, is the translation of a German sentence over the door of a 
dwelling in the village of Ober-Schönberg, near Innsbruck, Tyrol, copied 
in 1897:

All persons entering this house are recommended to Divine protection. 
God and the Virgin Mary guard all such, even though powerful enemies 
threaten, and lightnings and thunder rage without!

Above the door of a house in the village of Welschnofen, near Botzen, 
the wayfarer may read the following sentence: "Pray for us, holy 
Florian, that fire may not harm our dwelling." Above the inscription an 
eye is painted, while below is a realistic picture of Saint Florian, the 
protector of buildings against fire, engaged in pouring water on a 
burning roof.

The Bassamese, inhabitants of the Gold Coast of Africa, west of 
Ashantee, use certain fetich objects for the protection of their 
dwellings. These amulets, which are often merely pieces of wood painted 
red, or fragments of pottery, are placed upon the doors of their huts, 
and are believed to afford ample protection against thieves. Such a 
fetich is probably intended to exclude evil spirits as well, and is, 
therefore, a substitute for both the horse-shoe and the watch-dog, those 
guardians of the household so popular in civilized communities.

When a modern Egyptian returns from a pilgrimage to Mecca, he fastens 
above the entrance of his house a branch of the aloe, which is not only 
a proof of his religious zeal in having accomplished the holy journey, 
but is also reckoned a protection against objectionable spiritual 
intruders, and is, therefore, seen in Cairo over the doors of the houses 
both of Christians and Jews.

In northern Scotland, formerly, a branch of the rowantree was placed 
over a farmhouse door, after having been waved while the words "Avaunt, 
Satan!" were solemnly pronounced.

About the year 1850 the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, who was then assistant 
minister in Collace Parish, Perthshire, Scotland, found the custom of 
displaying horseshoes on the doors of farm buildings so prevalent that 
he thought it his duty to remonstrate against a practice savoring of 
paganism. But his efforts in this direction, though hardly crowned with 
success, were yet not wholly without avail, for his superstitious 
parishioners removed the guardian horse-shoes from the outsides of the 
doors, and nailed them up on the insides.

The raison d'être of the horse-shoe at the entrance of shops and other 
frequented buildings has been attributed to a belief that, among the 
many people continually passing through the doorway, some one might, 
unobserved, bring in ill-luck or work mischief. But these safeguards not 
only form a sufficient barrier against obnoxious hags and sorcerers, but 
are potent against ghosts and all manner of evil creatures. When the 
Oxford undergraduate "sports his oak" to prevent the untimely entrance 
of dunning tradespeople, he shuts out friendly visitors as well; but the 
faithful horseshoe, by a process of natural selection, debars only 
objectionable spirits, and is a formidable obstacle to the demon of 
ill-luck.





On 4/7/2015 10:20 PM, M. Chris Manning wrote:
> This is most likely evidence of a widespread folk practice in which a
> horseshoe or other iron object, such as an edge tool, is secured to a
> building or integrated into the structure itself to bring good luck and/or
> protection to the house. Check out my recent article in the fall issue of
> Historical Archaeology. I specifically discuss horseshoes on pages 72-73.
>
> Manning, M. Chris. 2014. The Material Culture of Ritual Concealments in the
> United States. Historical Archaeology 48(3):52-83.
>
> I would be very interested in learning more about the details of this find
> and seeing some photos. Please message me off list.
>
> Chris
>
> M. Chris Manning, M.A., M.S.H.P.
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben
> Resnick
> Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2015 1:56 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Horseshoes - Foundations
>
> We encountered several horseshoes buried partially beneath the corner of a
> dressed stone foundation at a 19th century domestic site located along the
> southern Virginia coastal plain.  Additional horseshoes were also recovered
> along the foundation wall of an early 20th century addition.  I would be
> interested to hear of any similar observations for these site types
> including information regarding the possible background of site occupants
> (ethnicity, etc.).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ben
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> Ben Resnick, MA, RPA, MBA
> GAI Consultants, Inc.
> 385 East Waterfront Drive, Homestead, PA 15120-5005
> 412.476.2000 ext. 1200 | C 412.759.3156
>