Daisy Wheel, Hexfoil, Hexafoil, Rosette
Product details
- ISBN 9781805396635
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2024
- Publisher: Berghahn Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The use of protective symbols, also known as apotropaic marks, is often part of folk magic traditions. The symbols appear in homes and churches and on personal items, and even graves, across Europe, Australia, and North America. The most common and well-known of these marks is the hexfoil, otherwise known as the daisy wheel, witch hex, or rosette. Hexfoils have a history of use for personal protection and were both intentionally carved and graffitied into church pews and walls, bed frames, doors, and gravestones. This research sheds light on the use of this historic symbol to protect the bodies and souls of the deceased, across several thousand years and multiple countries.
Robyn S. Lacy earned her PhD in Archaeology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She runs a historic gravestone preservation business with her husband in Newfoundland, which takes them all across the island and beyond. Her first book, Burial and Death in Colonial North America, was published in 2020, and she regularly writes about her research on her website, spadeandthegrave.com.
