Spindle-whorls from the West Village 90

The average diameter of the Meare stone whorls is 40.5 mm. (at Glastonbury 44.15 mm.); of the baked specimens 33.2 mm. (at Glastonbury 36.6 mm.); and of those made from the heads of animal bones 43 mm. (at Glastonbury 38.5 mm.).

MOUNDS WHICH PRODUCED FOUR OR MORE SPINDLE-WHORLS
AND WHORLS IN PROCESS OF FORMATION

It is found that the dwelling-mounds which produced most spindle-whorls were also rich in weaving-combs and other weaving appliances. This subject is more fully discussed on p. 62.

Taking the collection as a whole the spindle-whorls from Meare are lacking in ornamentation. On the other hand they exhibit more decoration than in the case of those from the Glastonbury Village 3.

The tin whorl, W 135, is encircled by a fairly deep single groove (Plate XXIV)4, similar to W 143, of lias, found in Mound XXXVII (Plate XXIII). A similar lias whorl, with encircling groove, was found on Ham Hill, South Somerset (Som. Co. Mus.).

It will be noted that four of the stone spindle-whorls found at Meare have short radial notches at the hole on both sides. These specimens, W 56, W 78, W 139 and W 162 have been figured in Plate XXIII. Is it possible that these notches, which are more or less regular have some special significance? We do not know of other examples except one, W 30, found in the Glastonbury Lake Village5.

One face of the stone spindle-whorl, W 175 (Plate XXIII) is inscribed with eight radial lines, and traces of such lines are seen on the stone whorl, W 137 (Plate XXIII). Both faces of a stone whorl found on Ham Hill are inscribed with radial lines (Som. Co. Mus.).

Sometimes radial lines are combined with small circular indentations in the

3 One of the most elaborately decorated stone spindle-whorl of this period was found in Somerset at Camerton in 1934 (Som. Co. Mus.). It is figured in The Antiq. Journal, xv (1935), 199, and in Proc. Som. Arch. Soc., lxxxiii (1937), Plate xxvi.
4 Glastonbury Lake Village, Plate xci, and pp. 584, 589.
5 The drawings of the Spindle-whorls, Plates XXIII and XXIV, are the work of Miss V. M. Newman (Mrs. Talbot), one time junior assistant in the Somerset County Museum.

next

CONTENTS