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Description: | A stone spindle whorl of a calcareous sandstone. The spindle whorl is light grey and fine grained, polished until smooth. The spindle whorl is biconvex and measures 29.6 mm in diameter with a spindle hole of 10 mm. It is 14.7 mm thick and weighs 17.1 grams. It is undecorated. There is also slight traces of blackening from burning on one side. It has been pointed out that the weight of a spindle whorl is demonstrative of the thickness of yarn produced, with lighter spindle whorls (3 - 5 grams) being used for spinning cotton and the heavier ones (30 - 35 grams) for spinning wool (Margeson 1993, page 184). As the weight of this particular spindle falls between these categories it is somewhat difficult to determine the material it would have been used to spin. The dating of unstratified Spindle whorls is very difficult. However, Egan (1998, page 256) has argued that there was an apparent lack of interest in developing decorative versions of spindle whorls during the Medieval period, compared to the decorative examples known from the Roman and Saxon periods. Although decorated examples are known from the Medieval period, it seems more likely that an undecorated example is Medieval rather than earlier in date.
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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