10th Century Weight, Kirkton

Viking period weight from Kirkton.   The decoration belongs to the insular style of the ninth century which is found in Ireland, the Isle of Man and Western Scotland. The weight would have been used with a set of hand scales, probably by a travelling merchant.   A lead weight inset with a rectangular decorated gilded bronze mount. The decoration is a complex interlace pattern, which on close examination reveals the entire pattern is made from a single line. The bronze mount may originally have been a mount from a book or casket, looted from a monastery and set into the lead for re-use.   This mount was found close to the line of the old Roman road running east-west across the region - perhaps it continued in use as the main landward route through to medieval times.