Sometimes I think the common "cornerstone" ceremony is a remnant of a
similar ritual...in fact I've always wanted to go remove the cornerstones
of old buildings and see what was sealed in with them!  In excavating a
19th-century store at the river port of Bermuda Hundred in Virginia, I
found evidence I interpreted as possibly being some sort of ritual. The
store had been constructed around 1800, but an addition had been added, in
the 1840s or early 1850s. The main store was a stone-foundation building,
but the addition had been frame set on brick piers. At the northeast
corner tucked inside the "elbow" of the corner pier were carefully laid
four small (about 1/2 liter?) "wine" bottles--perhaps they had contained
port originally. One of these was partly intruding into, or out of, the
pierhole. The bottles themselves would have been of some value, even if
their contents had been consumed, so I don't believe this careful laying
of whole bottles at the corner of the building was simply trash disposal.
Instead I think these bottles were the vessels that toasted the beginning
of construction of the building...the equivalent of laying the
cornerstone. Similar dedication ceremonies are found throughout the world.

Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
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http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm

On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Martin Perdue wrote:

> I'm forwarding a query that was originally sent to a fellow scholar of
> vernacular architecture.  I'll make sure that any responses are sent on to Mr.
> May.  Thanks!
>
> Marty Perdue
> [log in to unmask]
> ========================================================
>
>
> Greetings,
>
> I am a U.S. Navy architectural historian working on the U.S. Army Fort
> Rosecrans Historic District in San Diego, California.  The early post
> buildings were erected between 1903 and 1908, following completion of three
> Coast Artillery batteries in 1898. The 1989 renovation of a 1904 barracks
> reportedly recovered 2 boots from a chimney.  Last Summer I monitored
> renovation of another 1904 barracks when a boot and campaign hat were
> recovered from a bricked-in cavity inside the original chimney.  The boot
> shows heavy wear and the hat suffered insect damage.  We have been puzzled
> as to who and why these objects would have been concealed inside the
> architecture.  This discovery seemed different from coins, bar tokens, and
> letters found in the walls.  Yesterday, I read in Ralph and Terry Kovels'
> antique column in the local newspaper that vernacular construction in New
> England carried-on an English tradition of concealing ghost and evil-spirit
> wards near openings and that this tradition dates back to the 13th century.
> Do you have any information or can you direct me to publications to support
> this interpretation?
>
> I have also learned an archaeology dig uncovered a glass bottle filled with
> ferrous needles and traces of urine in the hearth of a 17th century house
> ruin.  This is now referred to as the "Witch Bottle," but they did not
> provide substantiating evidence to support that interpretation.
>
> Are there articles on concealments in vernacular architecture?
>
> Ron May
> [log in to unmask]
>