Set and Setting and the Magic of Deposited Objects

The archaeological perspective of deposited objects as functional or ritual items has been justly criticized, because there is no dichotomy in which objects are either one or the other. An object as mundanely functional as a suitcase may perform a ritually functional role in an appropriate context, for instance, and become a magic object as a result. Yet magic is not just a feature that is instilled in an object at the time of construction or deposition. It also comes into being once a deposited object is found. Magic, in other words, is in the eye of the beholder. How this is so will be demonstrated by employing a set and setting approach to a magic object that was discovered in 2024 at Museum het Palthe Huis in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands.