Ralph Merrifield was an English museum curator and archaeologist. Described as "the father of London's modern archaeology", Merrifield was a specialist in the archaeology of both Roman London and magical practices, publishing six books on these subjects over the course of his life.
Photograph of Merrifield
The National Museum of Ghana
Merrifield helped establish the Museum of London
The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic
The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic is an archaeological study of the material evidence for ritual and magical practices in Europe, containing a particular emphasis on London and South East England. It was written by the English archaeologist Ralph Merrifield, the former deputy director of the Museum of London, and first published by B.T. Batsford in 1987.
The first edition cover of the book, depicting a 17th-century bellarmine witch-bottle found in an old mill-stream, Great College Street, London
Merrifield noted that archaeologists studying Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe regularly recognised the ritual significance of monuments, such as this stone circle at Swinside, England, but that those studying later periods of history often neglected to consider ritual explanations.
An example of the Sator Square, a magical practice widely found throughout Europe from ancient times to the present day; this example is from Oppède in France.
