Foundation Sacrifice: The Survival of a Problem in Archaeology, Folklore, and History

Abstract

This chapter considers the long history of humans, animals, and domestic items deliberately concealed or deposited in domestic buildings, which have been interpreted as ‘foundation deposits’ or ‘foundation sacrifices’. Both terms have ambiguous and often contested meanings, and this chapter begins by asking what is meant by them and how scholars have come to a range of definitions. It explores the long tradition in scholarship to assume the prevalence of foundation sacrifice in ancient cultures and to apply the notion of ‘survival’ to later material evidence. The enigmatic post-medieval building find is thus commonly interpreted as a survival of ancient foundation sacrifice practices. This chapters problematizes such assumptions, concluding that the concept of foundation sacrifice is a hindrance to the better understanding of post-medieval, ritual domestic deposits.