...not to mention the many coins placed under building thresholds...

Margie Akin
Riverside,  Ca.



From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.

-------- Original message --------
From: "M. Chris Manning" <[log in to unmask]> 
Date: 04/09/2015  8:35 PM  (GMT-08:00) 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: Horseshoes - Foundations 
 
Ray is correct—a wide variety of artifacts have been found in deliberately
concealed contexts from 18th and 19th century dwellings in the U.S., up
through the early 20th century, in fact. I am not personally familiar with
any instances of walking sticks or plates, but shoes are of course prolific
(more than 250 deposits in the U.S.). I am aware of at least two instances
of doll-like figurines in walls, as well as numerous instances of bottles
(including empty bottles, bottles of alcohol, and the infamous ‘witch
bottle’), garments, iron objects (horseshoes, knives, hoe blades, etc),
Bibles and fragments of hymnals and almanacs, the desiccated bodies of cats,
written magical charms such as the sator square and number squares,
inscribed marks such as the so-called ‘daisy wheel’ and Marian symbols,
bifaces and other prehistoric lithics, and spoons (usually silver). I’m also
aware of a large collection of chickens found in the wall of one house.

Susan mentioned the related custom of burying horse skulls under the floors
of houses in Ireland, as described by Evans (1957) and Ó Súilleabháin
(1945), a practice found throughout the British Isles and Scandinavia. At
least two instances of concealed horse skulls have been reported in American
buildings–at South Deerfield, Massachusetts and Cahokia, Illinois, with the
latter consisting of four skulls in a single house. Clearly the practice of
concealing ritualized objects in buildings among Euro-Americans is more
widespread than many of us may realize, as up to this point most of the
focus has been on African-American traditions.

I maintain an informal database of such finds in the United States and
welcome information on any additional finds the members of this list may
have to contribute. Incidentally, I’m also looking for a non-profit or other
institution with whom I could partner to create an online database that
would be easily accessible to professionals and the general public. I’m open
to suggestions.

Chris

M. Chris Manning, M.A., M.S.H.P.
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