#FindsFriday: Cliftonville ‘witch bottle’

It's #findsfriday!

Further to the work our curator has been carrying out on the "witchbottle" from Cliftonville, James Elliot Senior Radiographer at Canterbury Christ Church University has been "excavating" the CT scan data from Laurel Dental Practice. One item he has extracted is this unusual and currently unidentified half-curved object. On the initial x-rays we suspected that this would be wood or possibly bone, however according to James the results show it is most likely metal.

"The density is very high, around 3000 Hounsfield Units (HU), similar to very dense bone or metal. For example, typical HU values can range from -1000 for air, up to 1000 for dense (cortical) bone. On the CT data I cannot see any internal structures for the item, and it is very uniform in shape. As such, I suggest it is metalwork rather than very dense bone. To compare, wood is typically -400 (minus 400). Its identity is still unknown however the video gives an indication of form."

James will continue working on the cone beam CT data and results will be shared here. It is hoped to produce an academic article in due course.

Let us know, what do you think this object might be?

#archaeology #archaeologicalscience #radiography #archaeologicalradiography #CTscanning #witchbottle #recordyourfinds #apotropaic