On this day...5th July

On this day in 2010 Phil found this amazing spindle whorl whilst working on Trench 13 on Chalk Pit Field. Unusually, it has been formed from a piece of buff-coloured chalk. Every surface has been decorated with random grooves and patterns. This is one find that must never be cleaned as it is the dirt remaining in those grooves that shows off its decoration. The central hole is worn and smooth, perhaps indicating its long usage in the past. The purpose of a spindle whorl, as the name suggests, is to fit onto a spindle or drop spindle. The weight would stretch out the fibre and aid the spindle to rotate, giving the twist required to the thread being produced .

Exactly a year to the day before, in 2009, John Hensby was cleaning back ready to start work on trench 10 on Chalk Pit Field when he came across a complete iron knife blade and tang. As is the practice the knife blade was later x-rayed. X-raying iron can often reveal details that are now lost beneath the corrosion product. Look above at Johns knife as it was discovered and the x-ray below it. Can you make out the parallel lines along the blade? This may indicate that there was originally some markings or decoration.