Weaving-combs from the West Village 70

Suffolk-A plain comb with rounded enlargement (perforated) at the butt-end. and having nine teeth, and associated with Iron Age A' pottery was found in 1938 by Lady Briscoe on the N.E. side of Maid's Cross Hill, Lakenheath. (Figured in Arch. Journ., XCVT, p.35, fig. 7, no.4).

Sussex-Three combs found at Lancing are preserved in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford (G.L. V., I, 279). Three others found on Lancing Downs are exhibited in the Ashmolean Museum the butt-end of one of them is rounded ; one has teeth at both ends and two perforations (one large).

Shropshire-A weaving-comb and perhaps part of another, found at Wroxeter. (See Report 3, p.33, and Plate xxii, figs.1, 2).

Wiltshire-Ten weaving-combs were found in the settlement at All Cannings Cross Farm ; six of them have perforated handles-some have the teeth entirely broken off; three of them have rounded enlargements at the butt-end. All of them have been figured ('The Early Iron Age Inhabited Site at All Cannings Cross Farm, Wiltshire', by M. E. Cunnington, 1923, pp.92-93, and Plate xi). Two of the combs are figured in Wilts Arch. Mag., XXXVII, p.536, Platei, figs. 19,20; and four of them in 'Prehistoric Communities in the British Isles,' by Prof. Gordon Childe, 1947 edit., p.201, fig. 70.
Dr. R. C. C. Clay found four weaving-cdmhs in an early Iron Age village on Swailowcliffe Down (Wilts Arch. Mag., XLIII, pp.76-77, and Plate ix, B 19, 20, 21 and 27). Later he found another on the same site, with a rounded enlargement at the butt-end (Op. cit., figured on p.543, no.7). He found other combs on Fifield Bavant Down (Op. cit., XLII, Plate ix, figs, 15, 17, 18, 19).
A weaving-comb of antler, fan-shaped in plan, length 5.75 in., was found at Okus Quarry, Swindon, in 1914 (Swindon Mus.). It has a weathered convex surface and a squared enlargement which is perforated ; of the eight teeth, the outer ones are mere stumps ; it was associated with twenty-eight chalk loom-weights, found in four places a few yards apart, seven weights in each hole (information from Mr. C. H. Gore).

Yorkshire-A weaving-comb which originally had about twelve teeth was found in 1934 in the River Wharfe at Boston Spa ; it has a square enlargement at the butt-end and there is one perforation (Figured in Yorks Arch. Journ., XXXII, pt. 3, 1935, p.341).
A comb was found at Malton in 1886 (Cambridge Museum). (V.C.H. Camb., I, 288).
Dr. A. Raistrick in his paper on 'Iron-Age Settlements in West Yorkshire' (Journ., Yorks Arch. Soc., XXXIV, 1939, p.134) figures two combs, both T-shaped at the butt-end and having a large number of teeth (some broken). On p.133 the author says they ' were present in Victoria and Dowker- bottom caves, and in Attermire cave' (see also G.L. V., p.279).

Wales-' A weaver's bone comb' was found along the wall between Rooms 3 and 4 of House XVIIN at Caerwent; this was part of the dentated end of a comb which had seven teeth (Caerwent Museum). (Archaeologia, LXII, 2).

Scotland-An important summary of ninety-four combs found in Scotland is given in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, LXVIII, 509, and illustrations of the specimens found in the Broch of Midhowe, Rousay, Orkney, fig. 26, p.486 ; also the impression or mould of a weaving-comb in peaty matrix, fig. 11, p.462. It should here be noted that all, or nearly all the Scottish specimens of weaving-combs are to be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities at Edinburgh. Those specially interested in the Combs found in Scotland should refer to Vol. IX of the Proceedings, Soc. Antiq. Scot., Pt. 1, p. 118, and pt. 2, p.548.

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