Additional Examples of Possible House Charms in the Isle of Man

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Study of the worked stones found in association with the many Early Christian burial grounds and chapels (known as keeills in Man) shows that where marked stones are re-used in the keeill structure, whether they be simply hollowed as by use as a door socket, or carved (or inscribed) grave markers of an earlier date, they are customarily placed with the decorated side downwards,' as if to transmit their 'power' harmlessly to the ground, or protectively to the foundations. This position is not universal, but does seem to be the more frequent. Broken milling stones are also quite often found on these sites.2 In the majority of instances there is no reason to suppose that they were used nearby, although this was suggested for that found at Lag ny Keeilley, Patrick.3 They may occasionally have been relics of the ritual destruction of a quern that had been used to grind on a Sunday, but the author excavated one piece that had been incorporated in the stonework of a long cist (of a type known in the Isle of Man as a lintel grave) in a cemetery near Santon church.4 One might assume that a stone broken because of its impious use would be eschewed, and it may be that a milling stone had 'power' by virtue of its association with the 'bread of life.' A more convincing example of the use of a 'powerful' stone from Santon parish was that recorded in the 1880s by Canon E. B. Savage from Ballavale.5 The Early Christian graveyard here featured an ossuary of which the door was blocked by a perforated round granite stone 'like a mill stone.' When a new house was built nearby, this stone was broken into four pieces and each interred beneath a corner. The cemetery and ossuary were then destroyed. Rather interestingly, the stones of at least one prehistoric burial site were incorporated in the foundations of the new church at Bride.6 While this may have been partly because of the dearth of building stone in the parish, it may also have been thought of as a way of disposing of the inconvenient but dangerous monument safely. The imagined danger was considerable. In July, 1987, I was told that a Mr. Callister of Lhen Bridge (who had given many archaeological items to the Manx Museum c.1910-20) attributed the loss of his eyesight to opening an urn from such a burial site. STONE AXES