Internet Archaeology 5. West Heslerton Assessment. 3.7.6

3.7.6 Other ceramic materials

In addition to the ceramic vessel assemblages there are a number of other ceramic items including gaming counters and spindle whorls manufactured from pottery sherds, loom weights and a part of a Roman 'toy' dog crudely fashioned in clay and fired to a low temperature.

3.7.6.1 Unfired clay 'loom-weights'

The frequency of fired loom-weights relative to unfired is very low, perhaps reflecting the very localised nature of the clay source for the unfired weights, which is easily extracted within 50m of the settlement. The identification of the unfired weights is based upon their survival in the fills of many of the Grubenhäuser, examples of which still retained their original form. A few were recovered intact, but most examples were only identified as spreads and dumps of unfired and often formles s clay. The suggestion that the Grubenhäuser were weaving sheds, which followed the discovery of collections of loom-weights in their fills, needs re-assessment in the light of this new material, its association with organic and faunal detritus, and the appreciation that the contents of the pits and the original structures are unrelated. The well-known later Saxon letters between Offa and Charlemagne which discuss the trade in woollen cloaks, coupled with a tendency to treat particular classes of obj ect in isolation, may have given a greater importance to the textile industry in Early Anglo-Saxon England than the evidence allows. West Heslerton offers important potential for analysis here, not only because of the scale of the excavation and the relat ively complete and spatially controlled assemblage, but also on account of the very large quantity of textiles, identified either as surviving fragments or as mineral replaced fragments from the cemetery. We have an opportunity here to examine both the pr oduct and the production mechanism, and to determine to what degree the loom-weights represent craft production for local demand or whether there is any case for craft production for trade and exchange; analysis which must incorporate not only the loom-we ights and other weaving equipment but also the stock survival profile and the consequent wool production potential (see also 4.15 Other Material Classes: Additional data recovered in 1995).