Witch Bottles Concealed in Houses
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Objects commonly described as witch bottles have been recovered from historic buildings, often from hearths, thresholds or other structurally significant locations. Examples may contain pins, nails and other materials and are generally interpreted within traditions of counter-witchcraft and household protection.
The surviving bottles provide material evidence that some households used concealed objects when responding to feared supernatural harm. Individual examples still require archaeological context rather than a universal explanation.
Source trail: Ashmolean Museum Spellbound; museum and archaeological research on protective deposits.
Related Journal record: Folk Magic in Britain.