Ronald Hutton's Physical evidence for ritual acts is published in Palgrave Macmillan's Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic series, which seeks to understand such beliefs in the past from hitherto unexplored perspectives. Hutton's collection does just that, and sets out to consider the physical and material traces of particular ritual acts left behind by past communities, and to situate these within our current understanding and comprehension of ‘supernatural’ beliefs in British history (with a final chapter dedicated to wider American and Australian perspectives). Hutton argues that, despite the huge increase in historical interest in beliefs in witchcraft and magic, especially the early modern witch trials, historians have tended to limit their endeavours to textual sources, leaving out archaeological remains and physical traces of evidence. This is especially the case, Hutton suggests, when it comes to beliefs about magic. The book attempts to shed light on the benefits of using non-textual sources to understand beliefs in witchcraft and magic, and argues that the call to follow such an approach is nothing new. Indeed, the collection is dedicated to the memory of the archaeologist and curator Ralph Merrifield, who in 1987 published a work which put forward the argument that ancient ritual deposits and practices continued into later Christian cultures. Hutton and his contributors continue this line of enquiry, collectively putting forward the view that although the intellectual cultures that surrounded ritualistic acts (including the purposeful placement or depositing of certain objects – including pottery, garments, metal pieces and even animals) were changed and potentially reinterpreted throughout different periods and cultures, the actual physical acts themselves, often used to ward off evil and harm, remained unaltered. Hutton's collection approaches and develops this argument from various perspectives, considering diverse material acts of ritual-making, with contributors exploring ideas such as carvings of the Virgin Mary in a post-Reformation context, the use of animal parts in magic, the act of concealing shoes and garments in buildings, protective marks on buildings, and the use of amulets. The work, although sometimes leaning towards over-generalisation in places, especially when jumping between different historical periods, makes a convincing argument for the importance of drawing together the traditionally, or habitually, separate disciplines of archaeology and history. Some recent endeavours to consider such themes and approaches within historical fields have not been included in the book's consideration of historiography. Indeed, Alexandra Walsham's The Reformation of the landscape (Oxford 2011) touches on some of the key themes addressed by Hutton and his contributors – including the notion of holy spaces and ritualistic understandings of space and object (addressed during Walsham's exploration of iconoclasm). Similarly, recent works on ritualistic use of domestic space, including those by Tara Hamling, are also missed out here. Nevertheless, the collection is a readable and interesting contribution to the field of witchcraft and magic. It also makes a convincing call for the inclusion of researchers whose work falls outside mainstream academic disciplines, and provides a whole host of potential avenues for future study into witchcraft, magic and various shades of folklore.