There is a jacket in the power house Museum in Sydney, and only three striped cotton shirts are worn by criminals we know. If it weren't for a strange folk magic ceremony, it was only recently known and suspected that the number of clothes for surviving criminals would indeed be scarce.
These three examples survived because they were carefully hidden in the walls of houses or barracks.
My doctoral thesis includes hiding prisoners' shirts and many other items all over Australia. This is the result of my six years' work. I deliberately look for and photograph hidden objects in old houses and buildings all over Australia, but why hide a shirt on the wall? 1980, two surviving prisoner shirts were found in the structure of Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney. These shirts were found by the businessmen who participated in the construction of the building. These buildings are currently used as the heritage flagship of the Historical Housing Trust, or people are now more willing to know about the Sydney Museum of Life. The third shirt comes from the residence of a former prison official in Granton, north of Hobart.
This dress is now in the National Museum of Australia. It was found in a hole in the wall next to the fireplace.
It may have been put there when building houses in 1830, which is part of the main project to build causeways on the derwent River, so as to gain easier access to farms and settlements in the central region.
About 200 prisoners were hired to build causeways under tight guards and chains.
In woodbury, near autran, Ian Evans, Tasmania, many articles were found, provided by the author. Clothes, shoes, toys, trinkets and dead cats hidden in houses and other buildings can be traced back to Britain, where they can be traced back to14th century, or even earlier.
Settlers and criminals brought this ceremony to Australia and North America as part of their cultural baggage. The author provides a book edited by British historian Ronald Hutton, which focuses on the boots of this young woman from woodbury, northern autran. The book, entitled "English Christian Rituals, Witchcraft and Witchcraft Evidence", will be published by Macmillan Press this year.
The book tells the end of the project of deliberately hiding clothes set up by the British Textile Protection Center.
When DCG directory finds articles and academic articles on this topic in Britain, such as M.
Manning's "Material Culture Hidden in American Rituals" (20 14) and other titles examine American customs, so why bury clothes, shoes and cats in the hole in the wall? The purpose of these secular objects is to lure evil spiritual forces away from people who live and work in houses and other buildings.
According to the folk magic belief at that time, a large number of evil creatures occupied an invisible field and crossed and flowed in the world of our human life.
Encouraged and encouraged by the devil, they tried to bring serious harm to mankind.
At that time, people knew little about how the world worked, and science was trying to get rid of the shackles. These ideas are widely accepted.
So, in order to distract these extraordinary and vicious creatures from their real goal-real people, hide old shoes and rags under the floor, behind the fireplace and on the ceiling? There are two theories: cats are thought to be related to witches.
Their habit of wandering in the dark makes their reputation not good at all.
So, bad cat? Maybe, but cats also protect houses from pests.
To another world, where they guard against mental pests? Good cat? Maybe, but why is this just discovered? One explanation is the lack of contemporary docu's psychological state of this phenomenon.
Historians tend to study paper documents preserved in libraries and archives.
Therefore, our history is written by documentary records. The largest Australian collections come from woodbury in northern autran and Ian Evans in Tasmania, provided by the author. The ceremony I described here left no trace in the archives or books.
Diaries, memoirs, letters are not mentioned.
This seems to be done in extreme secrecy. The only evidence is worn-out old boots and shoes, tattered clothes, scattered children's toys and trinkets, and the body of a long-dead cat.
These are hidden in the cracks of buildings, and most of them hide secrets before house decoration or demolition.
In about six years of research, I have traveled all over New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, and visited many places where hidden objects were found.
First, I asked the members of the mailing list of estate consultants in New South Wales and Victoria if they knew about the items found in unusual places in houses and other buildings.
Soon, people discovered many such things: there are reports about hiding shoes in cities, towns and villages all over the country.
Cats and clothes are not common, but there is enough evidence to prove that they are listed in a national hidden items list, Shane's stable in Tasmania.
Ian Evans, provided by the author, the pattern began to appear: children and teenagers have more shoes than adults.
My theory is that childhood kindness and innocence were used to fight evil, and then I began to look for signs of evil or ametropia.
I found the first one in Shane's stable north of Hobart.
The scratch on the sandstone edge of the window is one of the common signs in England: hexagon.
Tilt signs are usually used at the entrance of buildings: near windows or doors, fireplace lintels or roof holes.
I am still looking for these, old shoes and dead cats. Can you tell us the history of Australian prisoners? Ian Evans, the author's lesson is that there are as many written records of history as there are.
Although the object in this case is silent, there is an important story to tell-the story of hope and fear of an Australian who grew up in our country, which is the tip of the iceberg.
If you are curious, you can read more information about it here.
Thematic picture: Prisoner's shirt, provided by Ian Evans, author of Australian National Museum. Ian Evans's article "These Walls Can Talk: Australian History Preserved by Folk Magic" was first published in Dialogue and reprinted with the permission of Knowledge.
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