Casgliadau Arlein

Steelyard with three suspension hooks to provide the different fulcra required to weigh objects of varying weights. All three hooks are made from bronze strips which splay to the hooked ends but narrow to oval-sectioned wire at the other ends; this passes through the loops on the steelyard and are secured by being twisted back around themselves. From the looped terminal of the steelyard hangs a W of wire which secures a semioval of wire through its pierced ends. A fragment of an iron ring is attached to this fitting. The facetted face has groups of six dots divided by transverse lines. Another has more widely spaced dots. A third face has two dots 21 mm apart and on a fourth only a single dot survives. Unfortunately the steelyard is incomplete and it is impossible to tell whether each groove represents a pound (327.45g) and each dot an ounce (27.29g) as on the Colchester example (Crummy 1983, No 2508). However one face has groups of six dots divided by transverse lines, so it is likely that each group represented six ounces or a semis. The dots are not carefully placed suggesting that the resultant measurements would not be scientifically accurate. One other face has more-widely-spaced dots but no complete group survives to indicate the weights involved. Condition: shank broken off, one hook broken in two.