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Description: | A cast lead (?alloy) weight, possibly a spindle whorl. The object is biconical with a perforation running through the centre. The object has an outer diameter of 32.8mm, and the central perforation is 9.75mm in diameter. The object is 6.8mm thivk, and it weighs 30.44g. The object has a brown/grey patina. Both sides of the object are decorated by a series of raised lines and pellets, some of which are joined. Most of the lines are straight. Both sides of the object have a slightly raised perimeter.These weighs are not yet completely understood. It is possible they could have been spindle whorls. 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 (2001, p66) 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, 2001, p66).
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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