Description

Summary: 1 chalk loomweight with a hole for suspension, from the early Iron Age settlement (early La Tene period) at Swallowcliffe Down, Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire. Excavated by Dr R C C Clay, 1925.

Research results

A perforated chalk loomweight excavated from the Iron Age settlement at Swallowcliffe Down by R C C Clay in 1925.

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.