A Recent Find of a Horse Skull in a House at Ballaugh, Isle of Man

THE skull was brought to the attention of the Manx Museum in 1987 when the house was in the process of being gutted and rebuilt after a fire. While the builders were removing the first floor joists they uncovered what appeared to be a skull and hip bone set into a joist hole. Their initial interest was as to whether the skull was human, despite its great size, and the police were duly informed of its discovery. While the skull was still set in the wall it was impossible for a non-expert to identify it as any known animal, such as a horse, or cow, because the bone structure seemed so unusual. The reason the skull had been so difficult to identify in situ was because it had been assumed that the portion of the skull that was visible had been the front with the two eye sockets exposed (see Figure I). It transpired when the skull was removed that the section 'facing' into the room was actually the back of the skull, and that it was in fact a horse's skull with twin boar tusks inserted into the tooth sockets of the upper jaw. This solved the initial mystery of why the skull should seem to be pointing into the room when charms to ward off evil normally face outwards to stop anything entering the house, or crossing the threshold. The hip bone that had originally been reported as lying next to the skull never materialised, and was not evident when the skull was photographed in situ or when it was removed from the wall. Red veining was found on the skull and was originally thought to be dried blood and evidence that the skull was interred with the flesh still on. The surface debris was later discovered to be subsequent organic growth (fungal hyphae) on the skull, so it had been interred as clean bone without flesh. (See Figure 2). The boar tusks, unfortunately, fell out of the sockets when the skull was being brought to the Museum and therefore do not appear upon the photograph. The question was now when and why the skull had been put into the joist hole. To answer this question a search was made of the house's history to find any relevant information. Using various primary documentary sources it was possible to trace the house's development. It originally had a basic four room plan with a central doorway, similar to most old Manx farmhouses, and was known as Squeen Lodge. It was subsequently extended and enlarged in the late nineteenth century when the house was converted into a Rectory. The first incumbent of the Rectory, who paid for and oversaw its rebuilding, was the Rev. William Kermode, a well-known local Manx antiquarian. A theory was then postulated that the horse's skull with the added boar tusks represented the conscious continuation of a folk tradition by this scholarly antiquarian and folklorist. Another likely 'culprit' for interring the skull was seen as being one of his older sons, who later went on to become the first director of the Manx Museum, since he is known, for example, to have carved a runic inscription on the tombstone of the family's deceased dog. The initial theories centred on the idea of it being a deliberate continuation of old folk traditions by an antiquarian, or a practical joke by the builders, and/or the Rector's sons, of putting an unseemly object such as a skull with added tusks into the

Skull · Anatomy · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Medicine

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