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Description: | A cast lead weight, possibly a spindle whorl. The weight is sub-circular in plan with a sub-circular perforation running through it, slightly off-centre on one side. In profile, one side is slightly concave, the other is slightly convex, with a gently curved (concave) edge running around the circumference. The weight has a maximum diameter of 23.0mm, and the central perforation is approximately 6mm in diameter on the concave side, and approximately 5mm on the convex side. The weight is a maximum of 9.1 mm thick, and it has a mass of 27.04g. The weight has a mottled light brown/cream coloured matt surface. Neither side appears to be decorated.
In the ??Finds Recording Guide??, Geake (2001, p66) points out that: ??The function of leads weights would have varied, from spindle-whorls to fishing weights to trade weights.?? She adds that spindle whorls should ideally be circular and must have a central perforation (ibid.). It is possible, therefore, that this lead weight is a spindle whorl.
At the Austin Friary in Leicester (see Mellor and Pearce, 1981), a decorated whorl was found, still on its spindle, in a 13th to 15th century context. However, Geake (ibid.) states: ??Dating of lead whorls is difficult. The drop spindle with which they were used continued in use until the end of the Medieval period in London and Winchester (Egan, 1998, ??The Medieval Household: Daily Living c1150 ?? c1450??, 255-261; and Biddle, 1990, ??Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester??), and for perhaps a century longer in Norfolk (Margeson, 1993, ??Norwich Households: Medieval and Post Medieval finds from Norwich Survey Excavations 1971 ?? 78??,184-5).?? She adds that, in Cottam in East Yorkshire, detectorists found decorated whorls in ploughsoil over the site of Roman buildings (Geake, ibid.). Without further context, is it not possible to closely date this lead weight. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Slarke, Duncan - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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