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Description: | Granite gaming piece, like an early curling stone, circular in plan and symmetrically spherical in profile, with ground flattened parallel upper and lower faces and a slightly raised central ridge around the circumference of the edge. The stone shows polishing on the flat surfaces and battering around the edge. A flake has been broken off from one edge across part of one face, and has since been worn, so was probably caused by the impact of another stone hitting it during the game. Although the shape of the piece is discoidal, it was not used as a discus, but instead thrown along a smooth surface, like a wooden floor, to knock other stones out of the way on a marked target, similar to modern curling today. Curling is thought to have been invented in Scotland during the late Medieval period from evidence in paintings, records and curling stones inscribed with the dates 1511 and 1551 from Dunblane in Scotland. But it is not referred to as curling until c.1620 and formal clubs start to be set up during the later 17th century. In the early history of curling, the playing stones (or rocks) were simply flat-bottomed river stones that were sometimes notched or shaped; the thrower, unlike those of today, had little control over the stone, and relied more on luck than on skill and strategy.This stone was worked up from a beach cobble which was derived from the granite outcrops on Tregonning Hill where it was found (Dr. Roger Taylor pers comm).
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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