Bottles concealed and revealed: examining the phenomena of stone and glass 'witch bottles' and their concealment in mid to late 17th-century England

The use of glass bottles and German or English made stoneware bottles as 'witch bottles' and their placement / concealment in buildings, churchyards, ditches and riverbanks is an occurrence limited to the mid to late 17th century and (largely) particular to Greater London, Eastern England and certain South East counties of England. Whilst this represents the beginnings of 'witch bottles' and their concealment as a practice in the national context, it remains distinct from other forms of popular 'bottle' magic that emerge over the next two centuries across the British Isles.

This unique phenomenon has been interpreted in two ways. The first is for building protection: here the bottle was placed in the chimney/hearth or under a threshold as a spirit trap. Second is their use as containers of an administered cure against witchcraft. Written accounts from this period by Joseph Blagrave (among others) that describe the practice suggest the victim would fill bottles with urine, other contents such as pins, nails and thorns and / or personal objects (e.g. hair clippings) and then burn the bottle until it exploded or had it buried. This act would inflict pain on the witch and reveal both their whereabouts and reverse the curse.

Since 'witch bottles' were first reported in the 19th century, they have featured in a varied range of publications, are curated in numerous museum / folklore collections and archaeological archives, and discussed on websites concerned with paganism and folklore studies. Their numbers have grown from the few first mapped by archaeologist and museum curator Ralph Merrifield (1987) and have since been recovered from archaeological sites, building recording surveys and or/ historic building renovations. Although many stoneware and glass 'witch bottles' and their contents survive in the present, it is a partial resource that has never been critiqued and surveyed as a whole collection. With bottles often considered individually, interpretations are reliant on Merrifield (1987) and whilst the scientific analysis of liquid contents has since been emphasised by Massey (2000), engagement remains limited to a few independent (i.e. Hoggard 2004; Hoggard in Hutton (ed) 2015) and academic scholars (Davies, ibid). Discussion is largely disconnected from the building types the bottles are found in and their cultural context, such as how medicine was administered and understood during the early modern period, and the role popular magic played.

This application aims to recalibrate our understanding of these bottles and their contents over 36 months through collaboration and accessible research achieved through partnership with Nigel Jeffries as Principal Investigator (PI) and other archaeologists at MOLA with Professor Owen Davies and Dr Ceri Houlbrook of the History Department at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) - academics concerned with the study of magic, witchcraft, object concealment, popular medicine and the material culture of magic as Co-Is. Beneficiaries of this research will include not just historians and archaeologists of the period, but engage and inform museum / folklore curators, while the subject of witchcraft has an appeal that resonates beyond academia.

Further reading
Davies, O, and Easton T, 2015 'Cunning-Folk and the Production of Magical Artefacts' in R. Hutton (ed) Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts, Sorcery, and Witchcraft in Christian Britain: A Feeling for Magic, Palgrave MacMillan, 209-32
Hoggard, B 2004 'The archaeology of counter-witchcraft and popular magic', in O Davies and W de Blécourt (eds) Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and magic in Enlightenment Europe Manchester: Manchester University Press, 167-86
Hoggard, B 2015 'Witch bottles: their Contents, Contexts and Uses' in R Hutton (ed) ibid, 91-105
Massey, A and Edmonds, T 2000 'The Reigate Witch Bottle' Current Archaeology (69, Vol XV (1), pp. 34-6
Merrifield, R 1987 The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, London

The immediate beneficiaries of this research will be between the individuals undertaking this project and their institutions: this proposal hinges on a collaborative working partnership between the PI and staff at MOLA, an archaeological practice operating in the commercial / private sector, and academics in the University sector. A successful proposal would enable MOLA to enhance its research capacity, and the knowledge and skills of the PI and the staff involved. Furthermore it would build its IRO status and strengthen the institution's reputation for leading and managing cross and multi-disciplinary teams and projects. The opportunities embedded in this project would also impact and benefit the academic career of one of the Co-Is, Ceri Houlbrook, currently an Early Career Researcher in History and Folklore, with the various impact pathways, methods and disseminations proposed by this project providing for further career development.

Outside of the academic community, the research generated by this proposal impacts on six of eight users and beneficiaries defined in the AHRC's Research Funding Guide (2018, Version 4.1, 58-9). The methods and channels by which these constituents will be reached are considered in more detail elsewhere (Jeffries_Pathways).

1. Public sector agencies or bodies: An important objective with a long-term legacy is to increase the visibility of witch bottles on the Historic Environment Record (HER) online resource managed by Historic England (HE) in partnership with the Association of Local Government Archaeological Offices (ALGAO) and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC). This will be achieved by the enhancement of this resource through the translation of the 'witch bottle' catalogue by the PI (see Objectives OB2) for each county HER to input.

2. Commercial / private sector: archaeologists and building archaeologists working for commercial archaeological companies and practices who encounter and discover 'witch bottles' either through excavation or during standing building recording prior to the alteration of a historic building. This group will be reached by dissemination through publication and targeted presentations.

3. Practitioner groups: The subject of popular magic and object concealment will be of interest and relevance to those practitioner groups focused on post-medieval archaeology, medieval and later ceramics and folklorists. A fourth body are volunteers and professionals concerned with building conservation and recording. These constituents will be reached and engaged during the project's duration through targeted presentations delivered to the conferences they host by the PI and Co-Is and published disseminations.

4. Third sector: the methodology required for the 'witch bottle' survey and catalogue (see Objectives OB2) requires significant engagement and knowledge exchange between the project team and the curators and staff of the publicly-funded museums and institutions these objects are displayed and stored.

5. The media: the subject of object concealment and popular magic in the early modern period has a wide appeal and should be of interest to national and regional media outlets (broadcast, print and digital). They will be reached through the development of a targeted and integrated communications strategy working with the Marketing and Communications team at MOLA.

6. Wider public in general: like the media outlets, it is anticipated the research generated by this proposal and its subject matter will generate public interest. We will reach this group by the production of outputs for wider audiences, including social media, and using the already well-established, publicly-accessible, web-based platform - 'Concealed Revealed' Historypin collection created by Houlbrook. https://www.historypin.org/en/person/66740.