Mysterious 'Swan Pits' Found in U.K.
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Feb. 22, 2005 — Archaeologists excavating a 17th century site in Cornwall, England have found 22 mysterious, rectangular pits lined with swan feathers, according to the dig's overseer, Jacqui Wood.
Wood, who is the director of Saveock Water Archaeology in Cornwall, told Discovery News that she suspects the pits could provide evidence for a "secret swan sect" that existed at around 1640, a time in British history when the practice of pagan rituals could have led to a death sentence.
In a report published at
http://www.archaeologyonline.org, Marie Jefferis, supervisor of the Saveock site, wrote that of the excavated pits, only six were left with their contents intact. The rest contained small pebbles and fragments of swan feathers and down.
Of the intact six, Jefferis' report mentioned that one contains a lining of swanskin with the feathers still attached. The feathers were wrapped around a black organic material that has yet to be identified. In the center were several quartz pebbles.
"Effort was made to gather these special little stones, as they likely came from 40 miles away near an area in Cornwall that today still is known for its swans," Wood told Discovery News.
Yet another pit contained the feathers of an unidentified brown bird, along with decomposed bird bones, and small claws from different bird species. It also was lined with swanskin and feathers, and had quartz pebbles in it.
The most fascinating pit, according to Jefferis, contained the remains of two whole chickens or cockerels placed at either end. In the middle were egg remains, some of which contained "tiny, unhatched, fully-formed chicks."
The pits were oriented, usually in patterns of three, toward certain directions. They varied in size, but averaged 18 inches long, 13 inches wide, and 8 inches deep.
Near the pits, the archaeologists excavated 48 strips of textile, brass pins, a large quantity of leather, human hair, seeds, remains of flowers, a piece of an iron cauldron and the apparent remains of a stone-lined tank. Jefferis believes that the latter could have been part of a spring that once was used for sacred rituals.
During the 17th century, the swan was dedicated to the royal crown, according to the report. Harsh penalties were imposed upon anyone who caught, killed, or even thought about doing harm to a swan. One case in a local historical archive indicates that a man went to prison for six months just because he was seen walking at a nearby river's edge with a hooked stick.
"We believe that the pits could have been dedicated to the goddess Dana, who also is called Saint Brigit or Saint Bride," Wood said. "Eggs sometimes were associated with protection from thunderstorms. Bride was a sort of mother goddess."
Graham Holderness, professor of English at the University of Hertfordshire who is an expert on Anglo-Saxon culture from the 17th century, agreed that the Cornwall evidence is "fascinating" and that swans were revered in Britain and beyond.
Holderness conferred with Owen Davies, a historian and an expert on 17th century witchcraft and paganism. They stated that swans throughout history often were linked to grace, beauty, peregrination, spirituality and the human soul. The Romans, Hindus, and ancient Celts all incorporated swans into their legends and myths.
Holderness and Davies think Wood and her colleagues pose an "intriguing possibility" concerning the proposed pagan swan rituals, but they do not think paganism was involved in the construction and usage of the pits.
"Unfortunately, this is no more than fantasy, the da Vinci Code of archaeology," Holderness told Discovery News. "The pits relate to no form of magic practiced in the seventeenth century... . The pits sound like the remains of straightforward swan husbandry. The pebbles may have been used as dummies to encourage egg laying or put under broody birds, as with waterfowl breeding today."
He added, "The swan remains as magical a bird as it ever was. But there were no feathered shamans in Cornwall in the 1640's."
