/oss/taxonomy/term/3840/all en /oss/article/bottled-superstition-then-and-now <p>Workers at a London construction site were mystified when they unearthed a sealed stoneware bottle with some very strange markings including the image of a scary bearded man. The bottle, obviously buried a long time ago, was identified by archeologists as a “witch bottle,” meant to provide protection from witches’ spells. Back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a powerful belief in witches and their ability to cause illness by casting a spell. But the evil spells could be fended off by trapping them in a “witch bottle,” which if properly prepared, could actually reflect th</p> Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:44:15 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7692 at /oss