Imagine excavating a 17th-century fireplace or a chimney stack, and instead of finding coins, you pull out a bottle filled with rusted iron pins, human hair, a tooth, and a mysterious fluid (likely the victim's own urine). This wasn't just some quaint folk belief.
The 'Witch Bottle' was a targeted apotropaic device – a serious 'prescription' designed to trap and physically punish the person casting a spell on the victim. Every time the witch tried to attack, the sharp pins were supposed to impale them in the 'otherworld.' It's a shocking testament to how terrifying the fear of the supernatural truly was.
The craziest part? New research suggests these bottles might have also served as a desperate form of early medical treatment. They didn't distinguish between a curse and a mysterious illness. So they bottled themselves up, literally, to survive.
For those of us obsessed with the occult, forgotten history, and the desperate attempts of humanity to fight unseen forces, this is a deep rabbit hole.
Here are some detailed sources if you can stomach the details:
- Smithsonian Mag:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/witch-bottle-full-teeth-pins-and-possibly-urine-discovered-chimney-180973448/
- National Geographic:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/witch-bottles-rituals-superstition-17th-century
- Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_bottle
- Photo of a 17th-century Bellarmine jug, often used as a witch bottle. Source: Malcolm Lidbury, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
by bortakci34
2 Comments
Hair, nails and urine.
A “wine expert” famously drank the contents of one on a British TV show some years back and “guessed” the contents were Port.
Can i have it?