Rights Holder: Somerset County Council
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SPINDLE WHORL
Unique ID: SOM-F369C6
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
A stone spindle whorl of unknown date. The spindle whorl is 32.1mm in diameter, circular in plan. In profile it is bi-conical with a flattened top and bottom and distinct ridge around the centre. 18.6mm high. Both faces of the spindle whorl are flat and undecorated. A straight sided, circular perforation 5.9mm in diameter runs through, slightly off centre, for attachment to a wooden spindle. It weighs 22.77 grams.
The stone is dark grey in colour with a distinct laminar structure, the softer layers of which have preferrentialy weathered. It has been identified by Dennis Parsons as a Schist becoming gneissose or Garnet mica gneiss with schistose texture and as an imported stone, from northern Scotland or Scandinavia.
While the form is constant with spindle whorls found in the Iron Age and Roman periods the source of the stone suggests a later period, later Early Medieval - Post Medieval when import of specialist stone for small items such as whetstones was more common.
DEV-D66401 on this database appears slightly similar in stone type although different in cross section.
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: UNKNOWN
Period from: IRON AGE
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa 800 BC
Date to: Circa AD 1700
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 18.6 mm
Weight: 22.77 g
Diameter: 32.1 mm
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 1st January 2017 - Thursday 20th July 2017
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Other reference: SCC receipt 19263
Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: South West (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Somerset (County)
District: South Somerset (District)
Parish or ward: Stoke Sub Hamdon (Civil Parish)
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: ST4616
Four figure Latitude: 50.94089985
Four figure longitude: -2.76994242
1:25K map: ST4616
1:10K map: ST41NE
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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