Needle cases, needle tidy, needles and flints

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This picture shows sewing objects found in Viking graves from Balnakeil near Durness in Sutherland, from Ballinaby on Islay in the Inner Hebrides and from Cnip at Valtos at Uig, on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The graves date from between 850 and 925.

The needle case on the top left, from Ballinaby, was made from a thin bronze plate folded over. The middle one, from Cnip, was made from a bird's bone. On the top right is a needle tidy from Balnakeil. Here, yarn was wound round three needles, perhaps separated by a wooden divider.

The objects on the bottom row are also from Balnakeil. The two iron shanks are probably corroded needles, now fused with flints. Other flints, some of much older use, were also found in the burial. They may have been used to cut thread.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-000-099-774-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 848
• Date: 900 - 1000
  Between 850 and 925
  
• Material: Bone; with a polished surface
  Glass, enamelled or bone
  Bead / needle case / ferrule
  Needle case
  
• Dimensions: 84 mm L x 8 mm D
  
• What: Bead / needle case / ferrule
  Needle case
  
• Subject:
• Who: Mr and Mrs Maclean (Collector)
  
• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Islay, Ballinaby (no.2)
  Scotland, Ross and Cromarty, Lewis, Uig, Valtos (Kneep Head)
  
• Event:
• Description: One of a collection of eleven beads of enamelled glass, four ornamented with coloured patterns, a needle-case and a ferrule of bone, from a Viking burial at Ballinaby, Islay
  Needle-case of bone, possibly from a large bird, with a polished surface, from a Viking grave group from Kneep Head, Valtos, Uig, Isle of Lewis, 900 - 1000
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, pp 140-2. 
  • 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. 32-41. 
  • Welander, R.D.E., Batey C. and Cowie, T.G. 1987 
  • Welander, R.D.E, Batey, Colleen and Cowie, T.G. A Viking burial from Kneep, Uig, Isle of Lewis. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 117 (1987), 149-174.
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