Cypriot 4 spindle whorls: Early/Middle Bronze Age 2100-1700BC
4 more spindle whorls in Red Polished, Drab, and black-slip(?) wares. All similar weights. Variously globular or truncated biconical, the flat end actually concave in 2 cases. Although they have been a group in 2 collections before mine, identified as Cypriot, and James Chesterman was a respected collector, I cannot identify whether the slightly different one on the left of the photo (DJ 77A) is actually Cypriot.
It has been discovered that ancient Cypriot spindle whorls had the weight at the lower end of the spindle when spinning thread, with the narrow end down. This is not what was at first thought. Modern spindle whorls in Cyprus use the high whorl position.
Size: 3.3-4.2cm high
(Ex James Chesterman collection, bought September 1993 from the collection of Alex Cotton, Hampshire. James Chesterman was a publisher and gave his first antiquities collection to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in 1979. This is from his subsequent collection.)
(Aquired Chiswick Auctions 7th December 2016 lot 80.)
DJ 77 A, B, C & D
Cypriot 4 spindle whorls Early/Middle Bronze Age 2100-1700BC
