As Wicked: For Good is released, what are the historic meanings of conical headwear, and how has it evolved – from its origins in the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Spanish Inquisition, to the empowered Elphaba?

What's the first image you associate with the witch? Might it be the broomstick, which was first linked to sorcery and heresy in 1342 when Irishwoman Lady Alice Kyteler was accused of witchcraft? An investigator, on searching her home, found the offending item, "upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin". Or perhaps it's the cauldron, where potions were brewed in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble" was the witches' now iconic incantation.

But perhaps the most enduring image of the witch is the conical hat, seen in Frank L Baum's 1900 classic children's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; in 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West's frightening depiction by Margaret Hamilton; in the opening cartoon credits of 1960s sitcom Bewitched; in the Harry Potter films; and of course Cynthia Erivo's portrayal of Elphaba in the Wicked film adaptation, set to defy gravity once again when the concluding instalment, Wicked: For Good lands in theatres on 21 November.

Some of the earliest examples of conical hats are majestic, gold, tapered headpieces decorated with astronomical symbols from the Bronze Age, when it was said that the priests who likely wore them had divine knowledge and power. Pointy hats were found on the heads of Chinese mummies from the 4th to 2nd Centuries BC, earning them the modern nickname "The Witches of Subeshi" when their graves were unearthed in 1978.

So just how did the pointy hat become synonymous with the witch? There are a number of theories. Mandatory conical headwear has been used in history as a tool for forced identification and persecution. Those who held a belief or opinion contrary to the orthodox religions, especially Christian doctrine, were labelled heretics and forced to wear the distinctive hat. Jewish men in the 13th Century were forced by the Roman Catholic Church to wear a cone-shaped, horned skullcap called a Judenhut.

During the Spanish Inquisition – which began in 1478 – those accused of heresy, apostasy, blasphemy and witchcraft, among other crimes, were forced to wear tall, tapered caps or hoods called capirotes or corozas as a form of identification. The capirote is still worn as at religious festivals in Spain, particularly in Holy Week. Was this chapter in history a factor in the pointy hat's later emergence as a witch motif? Opinions vary.

Several centuries later, artist Francisco Goya appeared to reference the coroza in his painting Witches' Flight (1798) in which three female witches carry a man as they float in the air. The artwork is thought to be a satirical critique of superstition and ignorance. Created during the Enlightenment era, the airborne witches with grotesque features wear high, conical hats – resembling either the Ecclesiastical mitre or perhaps the caroza as worn by heretics – alongside a donkey symbolising ignorance. Below, two men, considered by some commentators to represent fear and delusion, react to what they perceive as a demonic or supernatural event. Art historians have interpreted the painting – and........

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