Rights Holder: York Museums Trust
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Unique ID: YORYM-BE6D9B
Object type certainty: Possibly
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A complete lead pencil of Post-Medieval date. The object is circular in section tapering to a blunted point at one end and is flat at the other. It is undecorated.
The metal has a mid-grey/brown patina and is worn. The object is 31.7mm long, 6.9mm in diameter and weighs 7.3g.
Styli of lead are known to have been in use from the Medieval to post-medieval periods and are thought to have been used as often for on-site tasks demanding functional literacy as for more formal writing tasks. Iron and copper alloy styli are more likely to date to the Roman and Early-Medieval period.
A stylus is a writing implement used to scratch letters into the wax of a writing tablet while a pencil makes a coloured mark on wood, paper or parchment. Lead is rarely used for objects that appear to be conventional styli, with the majority of such objects most probably functioning as pencils from the 16th century onward.
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, pgs.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.
Styli and pencils are significant objects, both in showing literacy and in helping us understand more about the actual practice of writing and the production of text.
Ref:
Egan, G. (1998) The Medieval Household: Daily Living c.1150-c.1450 (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London). London: The Stationery Office.
Geake, H. (2019) Finds Recording Guide: Styli, pencils and parchment-prickers; https://finds.org.uk/counties/findsrecordingguides/styli-pencils-and-parchment-prickers/ (accessed 11/03/2020)
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1500
Date to: Circa AD 1800
Quantity: 1
Length: 31.7 mm
Weight: 7.3 g
Diameter: 6.9 mm
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Other reference: YMT : E04949
4 Figure: SE8283
Four figure Latitude: 54.23614574
Four figure longitude: -0.74341187
1:25K map: SE8283
1:10K map: SE88SW
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.