What's behind your walls?

If you live in an old house, you really don't know until you look. Here in Providence, friends having their Federal-period house renovated discovered a child's dress and some other small articles, clearly deliberately left immured by the original builders; older posts on other ritual deposits can be found here and here.

Now there's a traveling exhibit entitled Hidden House History:

Some of the odder items discovered behind walls, up chimneys or under floorboards include clothes, shoes, dried cats, horse skulls, bottles and charms. According to Dinah Eastop, Senior Lecturer at the Textile Conservation Centre, deliberately concealing clothes and other objects in buildings has been a tradition in Britain since the Middle Ages.

“Nobody knows for sure, because there are no records, but we think the objects were hidden to protect homes against malevolent forces," she explained. "But it’s complex. People hid things to say ‘I was here’, or to ward off witchcraft, or as an offering to local spirits". . .

The objects tended to be hidden in similar places, particularly around openings like doors, windows and chimneys. “There was considerable anxiety associated with points of entrance, and we think the objects were hidden to protect against anything coming in,” Easton added.

Writeup here; there does not appear to be a dedicated exhibition website, but there is a bit of info available from its latest venue here.

Posted by David on January 17, 2006 10:34 AM