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1. 1 2017-05-24T10:09:20-07:00 Austin Mason f6137011c68eb792c6e14634815583b15e707dea Map View Austin Mason 2 An interactive map of all the objects in the collection google_maps 2017-05-24T11:39:30-07:00 Austin Mason f6137011c68eb792c6e14634815583b15e707dea

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1. 1 2017-05-21T13:06:03-07:00 Oliver Staten c625ae8c3926f5e1a4268bc91d6a6f4cdb1e7fb6 Cast Lead Weight 4 Object Page plain 2017-09-21T17:51:32-07:00 Tyler Chang 4811cb9da8b1643418562acfd23deb0f79c94ad4

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• 1 2017-05-21T13:06:03-07:00 Cast Lead Weight 4 Object Page plain 2017-09-21T17:51:32-07:00 This orange, amber colored lead weight was found by means of a metal detector near Torksey, England.  Weights such as this one represent the Viking economic system, especially in England.  The Viking economic system, called the bullion economy, was based on weights and scales, in which the form of the currency did not matter in a transaction.  Instead, the Vikings cared only for the quantity and quality of what was generally silver.^[1]  Therefore, the best way to determine both the amount and quality of English coin was to measure those coins against their own weights.
  
  The specific properties of this weight would have made it ideal for mobile trade.  Because this weight is composed almost entirely of lead, and lead is one of the heaviest common metals, this weight would have been the more compact than most metals, and thus would have been better for travel than a lighter, more spacious material.  In addition, the weight measures exactly 19.55 grams, meaning that it would have most likely been used in the bullion system.^[2]  The weight would have been four units of approximately 4.5 grams in the bullion system.  This seems likely as the weight is estimated to have been used from 850 to 1000 CE, which is exactly in the middle of the Viking Age.
  
  This weight’s most unique quality is its three slashes down the side.  While it seems unlikely that they would represent any sort of weight purpose based on our analysis above, the scratches could perhaps have been used to measure the amount of hacksilver, rings, or bracelets being traded.  An even more likely explanation is that this weight’s owner labeled his weights with these three slashes.
  
  Thus, we can conclude that this weight could have been a Norse trader’s personal possession used to measure hacksilver against the English coins and complete a transaction in the early Viking Age in England.^[3]