A 17th Century Witch Bottle Was Unearthed By Archaeologists In England

Archaeologists digging up a car park in Staffordshire have unearthed 17th-century witch bottle used to fight evil spirits close to a former pub in England.

Experts say that previously the so-called cursed people often filled such bottles with bent toenails and fingernails, urine, and hair to keep evil spirits away.However, the x-ray of the newly found beer bottle, initially made in Germany, revealed that it does not contain any such bodily parts.

“It’s not a daily find. Most of what we find is broken bits of pots and people’s rubbish,” National Geographic News quoted excavation manager Andrew Norton of Oxford Archaeology, a U.K. archaeological-services company, as saying.

The salt-glazed stone bottle is imprinted with the face of a frowning man.The archaeologists consider it to be an image of anti-Protestant Cardinal Roberto Bellarmine who lived from 1542 to 1621.The myths dictate that Protestants damaged the jugs to defile the Catholic leader.Norton added that another reading suggests it is “green man,” a legendary evil spirit living in the forests.

He also described a crowned lion imprinted on the base of the bottle, which is assumed to be the bottle maker’s trademark.The witch bottles of the seventeenth century can be compared to “a modern equivalent of hanging a horseshoe on your door,” according to Norton.