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Description: | A lead alloy pencil of probably Post Medieval date, about AD 1500 - 1800, but possibly Medieval. This example is of particular interest because it is contained within the remains of a bone box.The pencil is cylindrical. One end is slightly angled and possibly truncated. The other end tapers to a conical point. It has slight longitudinal straiations and is of very regular shape. The Finds Recording Guide (Geake, 2001, p 62) describes neat cylinders of lead, none with a surviving flared eraser and suggests they should be classified as pencils rather than styli and that they are likely to be Post Medieval. This example is 45.7mm long and 5.4mm in diameter. 9.85g. It has a small, off-centre, circular depression in the (possibly) broken end.The box is made of bone and is rectangular in plan and cross-section. It is open, or perhaps had a missing lid. It has a U shaped groove which holds the pencil tightly, one end of which is pointed and gets shallower to fit the tip of the pencil. The top half of the pencil projects above the sides of the box. The upper surface of the box is complete at the tip end, but the sides are broken in the middle, and almost entirely missing at the other end. A copper alloy rivet passes through the bone box from the base and projects by 3mm above the base of the groove at the end opposite the tip. This rivet would prevent a long stylus or pencil being fitted into the box as it obstructs the hollow in which the pencil rests. The pencil could be 4mm longer than it is and still fit. The hollow continues beyond the rivet and the end of the box is broken, so it is impossible to tell how long the box was originally. Maybe it once held two pencils. The box is 60.1mm long, 8.1mm wide and 7.9mm tall. 5.03g.There are numerous similar examples of pencils (many recorded under the term stylus) on the PAS database, but none has been found with a box or container.In record IOW-ED968C, Dr Helen Geake of the Portable Antiquities Scheme has commented: "The use of lead pencils is still not really understood. At Winchester they are found mainly in 13th- or 14th-century contexts, and it was thought some years ago that when graphite was discovered in Cumbria in the late 16th century lead pencils went out of use; but metal-detector finds of well-made mass-produced pencils suggest that in fact they carried on being used well into the post-medieval period".Medieval examples are described and illustrated in Egan (1998, pages 270-271; fig 209) dating from around 1150 to 1300. They have one end which flares and becomes wedge shaped, probably for erasure of marks made on wax tablets. Roman styli are usually longer and made of iron or copper alloy.Similar examples on the database include YORYM-732F91, LEIC-B3A50C, HAMP-0EA0E7 and SOM-BFE154.Together, the pencil and box are 60.1mm long, 8.1mm wide, 10.3mm thick and weigh 14.89g.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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