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Description: | A worn circular cast lead-alloy artefact, probably a spindle whorl. The whorl has a flat biconical section, with each cone truncated by the central perforation for attachment. The whorl is 27.1mm in diameter at its centre, 14.1mm thick, and the circular perforation for attaching to the spindle is 9.0mm in diameter and does not taper. The upper face of the whorl is decorated five lines which bound the spindle hole. The lines continue, forming triangles around the edge. Within the fields between the triangles are five, centrally located raised pellets. The lower face is decorated also with five pellets, between which are five raised crosses. The whorl weighs 48.2g. It has been pointed out that the weight of a spindle whorl is demonstrative of the thickness of yarn produced, with lighter spindle whorls (3-5g) being used for spinning cotton and the heavier ones (30-35g) for spinning wool (Margeson 1993, 184). It therefore seems likely that this heavy example was used for spinning wool. Decorated spindle whorls are difficult to date and those decorated with raised dots and lines have been found in both Roman and medieval contexts (Geake 2001, 66). This spindle whorl could therefore date to any time between the Roman and medieval periods. There a number of decorated spindle whorls recorded on this database that have come from the same parish.
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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