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Description: | A circular lead weight measuring 18mm in diameter and 4mm in thickness, both faces are flat. The top face has a rectangular strip of copper-alloy lying across it, this strip measures 13mm in length and 7mm in width, the remains of gold gilding can be seen on it. It seems that this strip of copper-alloy may perhaps be covering some sort of decoration on the lead as there appears to be a semi-circular groove with a circular dot in its centre which disappears beneath the strip. The back face is undecorated. This weight may be Viking in date, the Vikings arrived in East Anglia in 866AD and flourished until the 11th century. This weight was perhaps used with a portable balance, perhaps as a coin weight. The Vikings are known to have ornamented their weights in various ways including capping lead pieces with scraps of Anglo-Saxon metal work, cut from other objects. A set of weights decorated in such a way, and made in England, were discovered in a man's grave at Kiloran Bay, on the Island of Colonsay off the West Coast of Scotland. (Graham-Campbell and Kidd 1980, p37, Fig, 13).
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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