Record ID: CORN-E27859
Object type: QUERN
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
An incomplete upper stone of a rotary quern of coarse-grained greisen, dating from the late Iron Age to the Roman period. The quern is broken across its diameter, the remaining fragment representing about half of the original stone, being D-shaped in plan and plano-convex in section. There is a large fragment missing from the lower surface at one end of the break and a smaller fragment from the upper surface at the opposite end; the damage is mostly ancient although there are several smaller areas of recent plough damage. Allowing for the damage, the external diameter is approximately…
Created on: Thursday 4th July 2019
Last updated: Thursday 14th November 2019
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-14AEB7
Object type: BEAD
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Sandstone bead, round in plan and sub-rectangular in profile with almost straight sides and a small central cylindrical perforation which is 6 mm in diameter. The diameter of the perforation and of the bead, at 23 mm, suggests that it was not wide enough to use as a spindle whorl and the perforation too narrow for a spindle, so its likely function was as a bead or pendant. The bead is pitted where inclusions have been eroded out of the basic fabric and there are still fragments of quartz and felspar visible. Threipland (1956) illustrates a stone bead-like spindle whorl, tall with s…
Created on: Thursday 7th March 2019
Last updated: Thursday 4th April 2019
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-111E0B
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
A spindle whorl of mica schist dating from the Iron Age or Romano-British period (c.700 BC- AD 500). The whorl is circular in plan and rectangular in profile: 28 mm in diameter, 12 mm in height, 10 mm in thickness and 15.42 g in weight. The whorl has a circular perforation which is 9.5 mm in diameter and within 1 mm of the centre, ensuring that it would be well balanced when in use during the spinning process. The perforation is slightly hour-glass shaped, indicating that it was drilled from both sides, probably with a bow drill using a flint or metal tip. The schist is a pale pinky-g…
Created on: Thursday 7th March 2019
Last updated: Wednesday 20th March 2019
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-08B6B8
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
A micaceous hornfels spindle whorl dating from the Iron Age to the Roman period. The whorl is sub-circular in plan, varying between 42 mm and 42.5 mm in diameter, and sub-rectangular in profile, varying between 6.5 mm and 9 mm in thickness, weight 27.75 g. The circular perforation is 6.5 mm in diameter and is distinctly off-centre, being at its closest 8 mm from the circumference and at its furthest 20.5 mm; the perforation appears to have been drilled from one side only, resulting in some slight splitting of the stone around its edges on the side where the drill emerged. Stone spindl…
Created on: Thursday 17th January 2019
Last updated: Monday 25th March 2019
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-23155B
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
A complete micaceous pink slate spindle whorl, circular in plan and sub-rectangular in profile, with parallel faces. ranging in colour from grey, black and pinkish. The whorl has been perforated through the centre and the hole is circular in plan and cylindrical in profile, 9.1 mm in diameter and 6.8 mm deep, and very close to the centre so that the whorl would be balanced while used in the spinning process. The hole is slightly flanged as it opens out at the surface of each face and was probably drilled with a bow drill with a flint or metal tip. There appear to be circular recesses …
Created on: Thursday 14th June 2018
Last updated: Tuesday 19th March 2019
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-1728DA
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Schist spindle whorl, circular in plan and biconical in profile with a central perforation that is 9 mm in diameter and 9 mm deep and slightly waisted in profile. The centre of the whorl is 9 mm in thickness and it tapers to a narrow edge which is on average about 4 mm thick. The schist is grey in colour with small specks of reflective mica and darker platy elongated minerals which could be hornblende or graphite as these are typical inclusions. The edges of the whorl have broken away through wear or damage, as the schist fractures along its planar layers. The surface is pitted and cr…
Created on: Tuesday 20th March 2018
Last updated: Wednesday 21st March 2018
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-89FC47
Object type: WHETSTONE
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Incomplete whetstone for sharpening metal tools or flensing tool for cleaning hides with both ends broken off, engraved with a lobe and circle pattern on one face that is comparable to the decoration seen on Iron Age metalwork. There is also the beginnings of this pattern with S-shaped scrolls on the opposite flat face of the whetstone. This decoration is under, and therefore earlier than, one set of parallel linear grooves on the side edge of the whetstone, that consist of three shorter, wider lines, 5-6 mm in length and 2-3 mm in width, followed by another nine lines, 8 mm in length…
Created on: Thursday 22nd October 2015
Last updated: Monday 27th April 2020
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-9BE2F7
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Published
Micaceous argillaceous shale spindle whorl, ranging from pink to light brown in colour with a sparkling surface from the mica inclusions. The whorl is oval in plan and flat in profile, with smooth parallel faces, and a slightly off-centre tapering depression in each face which do not meet in the middle and perforate the stone. On one face the depression is 2 mm in diameter and 3 mm deep and the other depression on the opposite face is 4 mm in diameter and 2 mm deep. The depressions have been deliberately drilled from each face but not completed so that the spindle whorl was never used…
Created on: Saturday 30th May 2015
Last updated: Wednesday 23rd September 2015
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-900426
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Silty sedimentary stone spindle whorl, ranging from pink to brown in colour, with small flecks of mica, so it may be a micaceous argillaceous shale. The whorl is circular in plan and sub-rectangular in profile, with parallel faces apart from a thinner edge on both sides where a layers of the shale have broken away through wear or damage. The central aperture is circular in plan and cylindrical in profile and measures 9 mm in diameter and 10 mm deep. The central position of the aperture would enable the whorl to be balanced while used in the spinning process. The aperture has concentri…
Created on: Thursday 6th March 2014
Last updated: Tuesday 20th March 2018
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-26DCB6
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Incomplete slate spindle whorl, circular in plan and sub-rectangular in profile, with parallel faces apart from thinner edges where several layers of slate have broken away, ranging from grey to black in colour. The whorl has been perforated through the centre and the hole is cylindrical in profile, 6 mm in diameter and 7 mm deep, and very close to the centre so that the whorl would be balanced while used in the spinning process. The hole is slightly flanged as it opens out at the surface of each face, and was probably drilled with a bow drill with a flint or metal tip. Slate is commo…
Created on: Wednesday 7th August 2013
Last updated: Thursday 8th August 2013
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-0283E7
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Incomplete micaceous argillaceous shale spindle whorl, ranging from pink to brown in colour with a sparkling surface, which makes it look like schist, but without planar mica flakes. The whorl is circular in plan and sub-rectangular in profile, with parallel faces apart from a thinner edge on one side where a layer of the shale has broken away to expose almost half of that face. Both faces are partially perforated in the centre, and the apertures are 13 mm in diameter and 5 mm deep on one side and 9mm in diameter and 3 mm deep on the broken face. The shallower aperture is off centre, …
Created on: Tuesday 6th August 2013
Last updated: Wednesday 7th August 2013
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: CORN-91A7F8
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: IRON AGE
County: Cornwall
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Slate spindle whorl, oval in plan and flat in profile, with parallel faces, a smooth flat edge, and a slightly off-centre perforation. The perforation is about 6 mm in diameter at the surface of each face, and has been drilled from each face, but has only just met in the middle, exposing a small hole about 0.6 mm in diameter. Both of the apertures are off-centre, suggesting that the whorl would not be quite balanced while used in the spinning process, and perhaps this is why the piece was never completed. Slate is commonly used in the county for spindle whorls as it is light and easy …
Created on: Thursday 14th June 2012
Last updated: Thursday 12th July 2012
Spatial data recorded.