WEIGHT

A complete lead-alloy weight with gilded copper-alloy insert of Early-Medieval date, c.AD 800 - 900. The weight is circular in plan with a rectangular section and is inset with a disc of copper-alloy on the upper surface. The disc bears chip-carved decoration featuring a right facing beast, or bird, head. The beast has a long hook curved beak, ovate head with a single pellet eye, and a long curving neck. The field behind the beast features wavering grooves. The recessed areas of the decoration retain substantial gilding. A ring of red coloured staining encircles the disc and may represent the remains of further decoration colouring the lead-alloy. The base of the weight is flat and undecorated.

The weight is 20.2mm in diameter, 9.7mm thick and weighs 26.4g.

The copper-alloy fragment is likely to be middle or late Anglo-Saxon in date, but it is difficult to parallel due to its fragmentary nature. Numerous Viking weights are known which have earlier pieces of metalwork, often with insular decoration, reused by setting into the top of the weight. Parallels recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme include: LANCUM-107126, SWYOR-4F2B32, SWYOR-CC1E24, LANCUM-45FF34, LVPL1684 and NMS-03F926. Examples have also been recorded from the Viking winter camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire (see: Blackburn, M. (2011) The Viking Winter Camp at Torksey, 827-3. In: Blackburn, M ed. Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles. London: Spink, pp.221-264).

Such weights are an insular Viking phenomenon believed to have been used for weighing precious metals while trading in the Viking period. Standardised weight sets featuring polyhedral and truncated sphere weights were commonly used in Scandinavia and were brought over to England. The need for such objects increased leading to the production of these personalised weight sets which used fragmentary insular artefacts as decorative and identifiable insets.