Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records. Introduction Follow the guidance given in Egan 1988. Don’t use the word ‘petronel’ as it isn’t specific enough. A separate guide may be consulted …more
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Jew’s Harps
Introduction Jew’s harps are small musical instruments that are played by plucking a flexible tongue/reed with one’s fingers, the tongue attached to a frame held in one hand at one end and by the player’s teeth at the other. Though most jew’s harps are made of iron (Wardle in Egan 1998, 284), the majority of …more
Vervels
Introduction Small, generally circular rings known as ‘vervels’ connected the leather jesses or thongs, attached to a hunting bird’s legs, to its leash, which was used to tie the bird to its perch or block. Some may have been attached directly to the bird’s leg. The main function of the vervel was to denote the …more
Hornbooks
Introduction The ‘hornbooks’ we record through the PAS are post-medieval lead-alloy alphabet panels, whose name refers to far larger, and better made, tablets, generally wooden, with or without a handle. True hornbooks had printed text on vellum or paper protected by a thin sheet of transparent horn. These usually showed the alphabet or the Lord’s …more
