corded as having been found in the Principality.[1] In Cornwall,[2] they seem to be especially numerous, occasionally occurring in subterranean chambers. They have also been found in considerable numbers in Scotland.[3] The half of a clay spindle-whorl was found by Canon Greenwell in the material of a barrow at Weaverthorpe.[4]
Sir Wollaston Franks[5] has suggested that some of these perforated discs may have been used as dress-fasteners or buttons, and mentions that very similar objects have been found in Mexico, which there is every reason to believe have been used as buttons. He also instances a specimen from South Wales, which has evidently had a cord passed through it, as the edges of the hole in the centre are much worn by friction. Such a view carries much probability with it, so far as it relates to the thin discs of stone with small central holes not parallel, but tapering from both faces; especially if they are in any way ornamented. Some of the rougher kind, however, may have served some such purpose as that of plummets or net-sinkers, as has been suggested by Professor Nilsson.[6] Perforated[7] pebbles of much the same form have served as net weights in Scotland, and are still occasionally in use. In Samoa, flat circular discs of stones, about two inches in diameter, with central holes, are used to prevent rats from reaching provisions, which are suspended in baskets by a cord. One of these discs strung on the cord suffices for the purpose. A specimen is in the Christy Collection. Their use is analogous to that of the flat stones on the staddles on which corn-stacks are built in this country, though in that case, the stones are to prevent the ascent and not the descent of the rats.
Judging, however, from all analogy, there can be little doubt that in most cases where the holes are parallel, the perforated discs found in Britain were spindle-whorls. As has been already observed, they are frequently formed of other materials than stone; and both the spindles of wood and the whorls of bone have been found with Roman remains.[8] They are also frequently formed of lead and earthenware. Spindles of ivory sometimes occur both with Roman and Saxon relics. I have several such, found with whorls of slaty stone in Cambridgeshire. The Saxon whorls are of the same materials and character as those of Roman age. Spindles of wood have been found in the lake-settlements of Savoy.[9] An interesting and profusely illustrated chapter on spindle-whorls will be found in Hume's "Ancient Meols."[10] Earthenware whorls, variously decorated, have been found in large numbers on the site of Troy, and with Mycenæan remains.
Allied to the whorls, but evidently destined for some other purpose, is a flat disc of shelly limestone, now in my collection, found at Barrow, near Bury St. Edmund's. It is 512 inches in diameter, 34 inch thick, ground from both faces to an edge all round, and perforated in the centre with a hole 58 inch in diameter, counter-sunk on each face, so as to leave only a narrow edge in the middle of the hole, which is much polished by friction. The edge of the periphery is also worn- ↑ A. J., vol. viii. p. 427. Arch. Camb., 2nd S., vol.iii. p. 223; 3rd S., vi. p. 376.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd S., vol. iv. p. 170. Journ. R. I. Corn., vol. ii. p. 280.
- ↑ Proc. S. A. Scot., vol. iv. p. 54; v. pp. 15, 82; vi. p. 208. A. J., vol. x. p. 219.
- ↑ "Brit. Barrows," pp. 116, 196.
- ↑ Arch. Journ., vol. ix. p. 11; xxiv. p. 250
- ↑ "Stone Age," p. 81.
- ↑ Proc. S. A. S., vol. xxiii. p. 213.
- ↑ C. R. Smith's "Cat. Lond. Ant.," p. 70. Lee's "Isca Silurum," p. 47.
- ↑ Rabut, "Hab. Lac. de la Sav.," 2me Mém., pl. vii. 1.
- ↑ 1863, p. 151.
