Witch
bottles are intriguing objects, which now and then turn up when ancient cottages
are being renovated. They were prepared in the 17th century by people who thought
they were being spellbound by a witch and wanted to counteract the evil. The
essential ingredient of the contents of a witch bottle was urine from the victim
of the spell, placed in a bottle or earthenware jar with thorns, pins or nails
— objects of penetrating nature that were believed to inflict severe pain
on the witch if he or she tried to urinate.
In Current Archaeology for August is an account of an intact witch bottle retrieved
in 1993 from the ruins of a cottage in Reigate that had been demolished some
250 years ago. There is evidence that although the green glass bottle probably
dates from about 1685 it was deposited later than 1720. Analysis of its contents
revealed sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate, phosphate
and nitrate, without significant organic residue. The high nitrate content was
attributed to the former presence of urine, whose urea had been converted into
carbon dioxide and ammonia and later into nitrate, a reaction exploited by former
gunpowder manufacturers.
Within the bottle were nine brass pins, evidently bent into an L-shape as a
single bunch. Traces of black pigment on these proved to be copper sulphide,
and there were also patches of calcium phosphate. The sulphide was supposed
to be derived from urinary alkylsulphate, cysteine and methionine. A brownish
deposit proved to consist of calcite, silica and calcium phosphate. Fragments
of cotton fibre were identified by microscopy, some showing traces of black,
blue and pink-red dyes. Also detected were wool and linen fibres, animal and
human hairs, an insect’s leg and grass debris. The bottle had been deposited
upside down, and its cork may have been coated with beeswax, to which adhered
a solid deposit of calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate and long-chain fatty
acids and alcohols.
In view of the evidence of oxidation and fungal decomposition, it is urged that
any archaeologists who unearth such objects have their contents analysed as
soon as possible.