WEIGHT

A complete lead alloy weight or spindle whorl of probable medieval date 1100 to 1500 AD. The object is broadly circular in plan and double-conical in shape. Both obverse and reverse of the spindle whorl are decorated with moulded decoration: raised lines and dots.

These types of objects are hard to date as their appearance remained unchanged for many hundreds of years. However it is likely that this spindle whorl is of medieval date (AD 1200-1500). Helen Geake writes: "Dating of lead whorls is difficult. The drop spindle with which they were used continued in use until the end of the medieval period in London and Winchester (Egan 1998, "The Medieval Household: Daily Living c1150 - c1450"; and Biddle, 1990, "Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester"), and for perhaps a century longer in Norfolk (Margeson, 1993, "Norwich Households: Medieval and Post Medieval finds from Norwich Survey Excavations 1971 - 78"). The excavated assemblage from Winchester contains one lead whorl from a mid to late 10th century context." Undecorated spindle whorls can therefore date from the Roman, Early Medieval or Medieval periods. It has been pointed out that the weight of a spindle whorl is suggestive 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, 184). This one was probably for spinning wool.