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This lead weight with an enamelled bronze cap is one of seven weights found in a man's grave at Kiloran Bay on Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides. He was buried with a range of Scandinavian weapons and tools. He was probably a trader as well as a warrior.

This weight is one of two with similar design and manufacture found in the grave. Both mounts were probably cut from an object made in an Irish Sea workshop. The weight is the second heaviest in the find, weighing 77.3 grams.

Although the Vikings weighed their silver and gold when buying and selling, we cannot recreate their weight standards with any accuracy. It is possible that different standards were used in different places.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-099-700-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: Kiloran Bay Viking Burial (multimedia essay)
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 782
• Date: 9th century
  Between 875 and 925
  
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• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Colonsay, Kiloran Bay
  
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• Description: Lead weight with inlaid decorative plate on upper surface from a Viking grave found at Kiloran Bay, Colonsay, Argyll, 9th century
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, J. Viking artefacts. A select catalogue. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1980, no. 307. 
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, pp 118-22. 
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, pp 48-61, esp. p 56. 
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