Burying animals under foundations: An Indo-European pagan folk custom

 

The custom of burying an animal under the foundations of a house is not only very widespread, found in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and beyond, but is also very old, dating back to the Indo-Europeans of the Bronze Age Europe. It even spread as far away as America and India! In this video I trace the customs origins and dispersal and explain the magical function of the animal and human sacrifices underneath the home.

 

Sources

• Eliade, Mircea - Zalmoxis - The Vanishing God-The University of Chicago Press (1972)
• Hukantaival, Sonja. (2009). Horse Skulls and "Alder-Horse": The Horse as a Depositional "Sacrifice" in Buildings. Archaeologia Baltica. 11. 350-356. 
• Kuzmina, The Origins of Indo-Iranians, 2007
• Manning, M. Chris. “The Material Culture of Ritual Concealments in the United States.” Historical Archaeology, vol. 48, no. 3, 2014, pp. 52–83. JSTOR
• O’Reilly, Barry. “Hearth and Home: The Vernacular House in Ireland from c. 1800.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 111C, 2011, pp. 193–215. JSTOR
• Ó Súilleabháin, Seán. “Foundation Sacrifices.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 75, no. 1, 1945, pp. 45–52.
• Søvsø, M., et al. 'Om hugorme, dyrekranier og tordensten– bygningsofre og andre skikke med rødder i folketroen'