PAS Finds: week ended 28 October 2022
PAS Finds: week ended 28 October 2022
My selection of the finds recorded at the PAS during the week ended 28 October 2022
Featured Find
Plumba – Jewish Kosher food seal
Photo: Surrey County Council CC By SA2.0
Object type: Seal
Period: Post Medieval
Primary material: Lead
Date found: 21/10/2022
Location: Westminster, London
A 18th or 19th century kosher food seal, known as a plumba (ie “lead”). The two ends would be clamped onto a food item to indicate that it was Kosher. The larger end here is fairly generic and has two sets of three Hebrew letters: אבד (aleph, bet, dalet) and דככ (dalet, kuf, kuf). These stand for “av bet din” and “kehillah kedosha” giving “Chief of the (Rabbinical) Court of the Holy Community”.
The other end of the seal would identify the supplier who had prepared the food. In this case only a N is visible. Given the find location it is possibly from the London meat markets.
Selection of other finds
Photo: Kent County Council CC By SA2.0
Man and lion scabbard chape
Probably a scabbard chape, dated to c. 1066-1200, in the form of a man stood next to a beast, likely to be a lion. It is a Find of Note.
Photo: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum CC By SA2.0
Irish Anglo-Saxon buckle
A copper alloy buckle dating to AD 600 – 700 which is a Find of Note of County Importance. Given its form and the use of enamel the buckle is believed to be of Irish origin.
Photo: West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service CC By SA2.0
Anglo-Saxon stirrup-strap mount
A stirrup-strap mount dating to AD 1000 – 1100 which has been designated a Find of Note of County Importance.
Photo: York Museums Trust CC By SA2.0
Roman steelyard weight or Victorian figurine
One of the those finds which is difficult to pin down particularly as no direct parallel has been found. The PAS record says a possibility is a steelyard weight, as the use of faces was not uncommon, although it notes the lack of suspension loop. It could be from much later, perhaps Victorian.