File:2045 Lead alloy spindle whorl (FindID 208599).jpg

English: Lead alloy spindle whorl diameter 30mm. Bi-conical cross-section, the surface has been divided into cells by seven radiating relief lines, in the centre of each cell is a pellet. 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 tenth century context.” Undecorated spindle whorls can therefore date from the Roman, Early Medieval or Medieval periods.