File:Early Medieval Spindle Whorl from Barton upon Humber (FindID 517147).jpg

Spindle Whorl. Cast plano-convex whorl with central moulded aperture of diameter 10.6mm. Walton Rogers' form A1. Incised knife cut decoration comprises three erratic circumferential lines which wander around the planar upper surface of the whorl, and angled radial lines in two sets which extend across the circumferential lines to its edge. These radial lines are continued down the upper sides of the whorl, where they intersect a further pair of closely spaced circumferential lines. The result is an untidily laddered decorative scheme. It does not include runic characters, as does a recent find from Saltfleetby St Clement, Lincolnshire (LIN-D92A22), though it may intend to resemble such a scheme - illiteracy was not a prerogative of those using Roman script. The scheme might alternatively evoke serpentine ladder motifs best known from inscribed stones from Gotland, Sweden. Laddered decoration recurs on an A1 whorl of chalk from Lurk Lane, Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire from a phase of 930-1070 (Armstrong et al. 1991, fig. 91, no. 63). Suggested date: Early Medieval, 850-1050.

Diameter: 30.8mm, Thickness: 9.3mm, Weight: 39.83gms.