SPINDLE WHORL

A 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 29.75mm in diameter at its centre, 12.05mm thick, and the circular perforation for attaching to the spindle is 9.5mm in diameter, tapering slightly to 8.2mm. The upper face of the whorl is decorated with irregular tapering double ribs which radiate out. Within each pair of ribs there tends to be a pellet; there is a further pellet in the field between two of the pairs of ribs. On the lower face the decoration has been distorted by wear and some relatively recent damage; it appears to feature similar motifs of raised lines and pellets. The whorl weighes 50.9g. 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 - 5 grams) being used for spinning cotton and the heavier ones (30 - 35 grams) for spinning wool (Margeson 1993, page 184). It therefore seems likely that this heavy example was used for spinning wool. The spindle whorl is of a mid-light grey colour with patches of light-grey / white flaking corrosion present in some areas. Decorated spindle whorls are difficult to date and those decorated with raised dots, zig-zags 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, albeit finds discovered in the vicinity would tend to suggest a medieval date as being more likely.