A cauldron, swan feathers, dead birds, human hair and fingernails are among the finds made by archaeologists excavating a 17th-18th century site near Truro, Cornwall. Jacqui Woods, leading the excavation, will present a paper on the finds from the ‘feather pits’ at the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, 29th June-4 July 2008 – a conference briefly blogged about by Intute in January. Intute: Arts and Humanities provides guides to the best of the web for academic approaches to witchcraft and magic: The Renaissance of Witchcraft Studies, and Perspectives on Witchcraft. Read more about the finds in the Times online 10th March 2008.
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j0hn fenn says: June 9, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Feather pits have a similarity to burial of offals, gizzard crop etc when killing geese or other birds. Two turves are removed , earth takenout to make a pit. Thecourse feathers are plucked filling the pit, the intestines are thrown in the gizzard thrown in or emptied plus the stones in and with the contentents of the crop. the absent large wing feathetrs have been cut of for use as brushes and as the feet were eaten the claws removed. as the earth is filled in it pushes the feathers to sides