Description

Summary: 1 piece of chalk roughly shaped with an upper projecting portion with grooves apparently worn by a thong or cord tied round it probably for suspension, possibly a loomweight with an incised cross on one side, from the iron age period, from All Cannings Cross Farm, All Cannings, Wiltshire. Excavated by Mr B H Cunnington and Mrs M E Cunnington, 1911-22.

Research results

A probable chalk loomweight found during excavations of the Iron Age site at All Cannings Cross, by Maud and William Cunnington, 1911-1922. The weight has been shaped with a projection with wear marks suggesting that it was used to secure a band or cord.

Ruth Shaffrey (2017) has examined these weights as part of a wider discussion of stone loom weights in Prehistoric Britain. She notes that whilst there is evidence for the use of warp-weighted looms on the continent, there is no comparable evidence in Britain until the post-Roman period, and that the identification of all prehistoric loom weights is based on an assumption. She argues that the size and shape of many loom weights would not be suitable for use with a warp-weighted loom and this identification requires that Iron Age Britain utilised a novel and regional form of the loom, such as one by which a single pole is weighed down by fewer, larger weights. Althernatively, she argues that we should accept that the variety in size and form visible implies a similar variety in uses.