Rights Holder: North Lincolnshire Museum
CC License:
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Unique ID: NLM-75EF12
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Lead weight. Cast discoid weight with bevelled edges. One surface is flat; the other bears two adjacent depressions, the smaller deeper than the larger. Patinated overall. The object may have represented eight Viking Age units of 4.07gms, as used in Scandinavia for checking silver bullion transactions, though this would have required insets, here presumed to have been lost, and weighing c.3gms. Weights with embedded objects are usually ascribed to the early medieval period. Suggested date: Unknown, Early Medieval to Medieval, 850-1500.
Diameter: 28.2mm, Thickness: 5.8mm, Weight: 29.86gms.
Notes:
The subject of Viking Age metrology is discussed for Flixborough, North Lincolnshire by Wastling 2009 (Wastling, L.M., 'Lead and lead alloy mensuration weights', in Evans, D.H. and Loveluck, C., Life and Economy at Early Flixborough c.AD600-1000, Excavations at Flixborough volume 2, Oxbow, Oxford and Oakville, pages 422-424). Wastling draws on Wallace 1987 for weights from Dublin using a module of 4.43gms (Wallace, P.F. 'The Economy and Commerce of Viking Age Dublin', in K. Duwel et al, Untersuchengen zu Handel und Verkher der vor- und fruhgeschichtlichen Zeit in Mittel- und Nordeuropoa, Teil IV. Der Handel der Karolingerund Wikingerzeit, Gottingen, and on Kruse (1988, 1992) for weights of a more general Scandinavian currency using a module of 4.07gms (Kruse, S. 1988, 'Ingots and Weights in Viking Age Silver Hoards', World Archaeology 20, 265-381; Kruse, S. 1992, 'Late Saxon Balances and Weights from England', Medieval Archaeology 36, 67-95. Kruse bases calculations on Nielsen 1983, on Hedeby, to arrive at the figure of 4.07gms (Nielsen, H-O, 1983, 'Rontgenologische und metrische Untersuchungen an zwei Kugel-Gewichtssatzen aus Haithabu', Berichte uber die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu 18, 109-120, Neumunster. These details were requested by Helen Geake, though this reporter regrets his lack of facility with the imposition of appropriate accents for the Continental sources cited by Wastling. These appear in their proper form in the bibliography of the Flixborough volume.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: UNKNOWN
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 850
Date to: Circa AD 1500
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 5.8 mm
Weight: 29.86 g
Diameter: 28.2 mm
Date(s) of discovery: Monday 26th October 2015
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Other reference: NLM30332
Grid reference source: Centred on field
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.