Phantoms, Fairies & Ritual Landscapes: #PMAC22 Twitter Paper

Dr Kit Leach,
Woodcut of hobgoblin (house fairy) ‘Robin Goodfellow’. From the jest-book 'Robin Good-Fellow, his mad prankes and merry jests', Anonymous, 1639 (2nd Edn.). Simple black ink printed illustration of a standing male figure, naked - except for clusters of leaves around his middle and on the top of his head. He has shoulder-length hair, and a full, long, beard that covers his face; and his body is covered with long hair. His left hand rests on his hip; his right raised to hold a tree branch (as tall as the man), from which two smaller branches sprout, each bearing three single leaves. The image is from the British Library, and is edited by the author.

I’ll be delivering a paper as part of this year’s online Post-Medieval Archaeology Congress (#PMAC22), held by the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology (SMPA), 20 – 21 May (tickets available here).

This paper – ‘From Ancestors to Phantoms and Fairies: Re-examining Ritual Landscapes’ – will be presented through Twitter (using the account associated with this project: @DoctressLeach), at 10.30 am (over 15 minutes) next Friday (20 May).

There’ll be 5 minutes for questions at the end – so I hope to have the opportunity to speak with any readers interested in the topic. The abstract is as follows:

Previous studies reveal the presence of Roman and early Medieval material at prehistoric and later monuments; and at natural features, such as hills, caves, and water sources. Comparison of a range of evidence suggests that later artefact deposition at these sites indicate their perception as otherworld portals, through which relationships with ancestral and local spirits were enacted.  

Analogous practices in the later Middle Ages point towards the continued or renewed significance of these sites within Christianised societies. While acknowledging that their ‘meanings’ may have changed over time, contemporaneous and subsequent folklore suggests conceptual connections for understanding otherworld realms and beings.  

Building upon the author’s and other research, a regional project examining late fifteenth – early nineteenth-century popular belief and ritual practices is exploring landscape features for potential evidence of post-Medieval activity; and reconsidering previous assumptions regarding the presence of material remains.  

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