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Description: | A cast lead weight, possibly a spindle whorl. The weight is sub-circular in plan with a circular perforation running through the centre. The weight is broadly D-shaped in profile, with one domed side and one broadly flat side. The object has a maximum diameter of 24.9mm, and the central perforation is approximately 7mm in diameter on the flatter side, and approximately 8mm on the domed side. The weight is a maximum of 6.4mm thick, and it has a mass of 17.31g.
The object has a light brown/cream coloured matt surface. The surface gently undulates around part of the the domed side of the weight, and a series of three adjacent humps are visible opposite the area with two straight incisions. The flatter side has a slightly raised rib running around the perimeter and also around the perforation.
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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