Material Culture, Microhistory and Mayhem. The Past and Stuff is a casual and irreverent podcast by Dr. Ashley Bozian and Dr. Tracey Cooper. Each week we challenge each other to identify an historical object, and then discuss what it can tell us as a unique window on the past. Expect an unexpected mesh of connections and terrible jokes, as a two very serious academics (not!), one a Armenian-American millennial and the other a British Gen Xer, have too much fun while trying to understand each other and the history of the world.

Show Notes Episode Twenty: Witch Bottles and Obsidian Mirrors

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Ashley’s Stuff in the News:
Michele McPhee, “Feds: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Took Bribes From Turkish Official To Ignore Armenian Genocide,” Los Angeles Magazine, September 26, 2024, https://lamag.com/news/feds-nyc-mayor-eric-adams-took-bribes-from-turkish-official-to-ignore-armenian-genocide
Sean Mathews, “First Stop Istanbul’: Mayor Eric Adams Accused of Taking Bribes to Do Turkey’s Bidding in New York City,” Middle East Eye, September 26, 2024, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/first-stop-istanbul-eric-adams-did-turkeys-bidding-armenian-genocide-and-un-compound-federal

Tracey’s Stuff in the News

Chemnitz University of Technology, “Archaeologists develop system to produce unique names for skeletons and mummies,” accessed October 1st, 2024 at https://phys.org/news/2024-10-archaeologists-unique-stone-age-skeletons.html

Tracey’s Halloween History

History.com editors, Halloween 2024, updated Oct 3, 2024, accessed Oct 3rd, 2024 at https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

Joshua J. Mark, “History of Halloween,” Oct 21, 2009 accessed October 3, 2024 at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1456/history-of-halloween/

Ashley’s Piece of Stuff:
Sarah Bahari, “Why Are Magic ‘Witch Bottles’ Used for Spells Washing Up on Texas Beaches?” NBC, November 27, 2023, https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/why-are-magic-witch-bottles-used-for-spells-washing-up-on-texas-beaches/3397188/
Phil Gast, “Artifact Found at Civil War Site May Be a ‘Witch Bottle’ Used to Ward Off Evil Spirits. Really.” CNN, January 27, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/25/us/witch-bottle-virginia-civil-war-trnd/index.html
Simon Ingram, “Witch Bottles’ Filled with Nails and Teeth Were Once Thought to Heal the Cursed,” National Geographic, September 24, 2024, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/witch-bottles-rituals-superstition-17th-century
Samir S. Patel, “Opening a Witch Bottle,” Archaeology Magazine, 2009, https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/halloween/opening_witch_bottle/
Mark Price, “Eerie ‘Witch Bottles’ Are Washing Up along Gulf of Mexico. It’s Best Not to Open Them.” Fort Worth Star Telegram, November 20, 2023, https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article281997308.html
Thwaite, Annie. “What Is a ‘Witch-Bottle’? Assembling the Textual Evidence from Early Modern England.” Magic Ritual Witch 15, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 227-251.

Tracey’s Piece of Stuff

Stuart Campbell, Elizabeth Healey, Yaroslav Kuzmin, and Michael Glassock, “The Mirror, The Magus and More: Reflections on John Dee’s Obsidian Mirror, “ Antiquity 2021, pp.1547-1564

Emiliano Gallaga and Marc G. Bliney, Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm, University of Colorado Press, 2016.

Marc N. Levine and David M. Carballa, Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic Dimensions of Obsidian in Mesoamerica, University of Colorado Press, 2014.

Guilhem Olivier, Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca “Lord of Smoking Mirrors” University of Colorado Press, 2008.

Karl A. Taube, “The Iconography of Mirrors at Teotihuacan,” in Janet Catherine Berlo ed. Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1988, Washington D.C. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections and Trustees of Harvard University, pp.169-204

Nicholas J. Saunders, “A Dark Light: Reflection on Obsidian in Mesoamerica,” World Archaeology 33 (2001), pp.220-236.

Paul F. Healey and Marc G. Blaney, “Ancient Maya Mosaic Mirrors: Function, Symbolism, and Meaning,” Ancient Mesoamerica 22 (2011), pp.229-244.

Wikipedia, Mirrors in Mesoamerican Culture accessed Oct 1st, 2024 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrors_in_Mesoamerican_culture

Wikipedia, Obsidian, accessed Oct 1, 2024 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

Wikipedia, Tezcatlipoca, accessed Oct 1, 2024 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tezcatlipoca