Apotropaic (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Rivers Cofield.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Digging Deep: Close Engagement with the Material World" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Horseshoes are common finds on post-contact sites in the Chesapeake and elsewhere. While they are typically interpreted as artifacts of transportation or agriculture, horseshoes also served magical functions such as warding off evil and bringing good luck. This creates an interpretive problem for archaeologists as the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia M. Samford.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Digging Deep: Close Engagement with the Material World" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. At Smith’s St. Leonard, the site of a Maryland tobacco plantation dating to the first half of the 18th century, a number of apotropaic objects have been discovered by archaeologists over the last two decades. Including bent silver coins, horseshoes, fossils and altered spoons and lead disks, these objects seem to embody...