Note on a Balance and Weights of the Viking Period, found in the Island of Gigha

Abstract

The circumstances of discovery of the objects is unknown. They are rare in Scotland and only two other examples are known from a Viking burial mound in the island of Colonsay and one which formed part of a hoard ploughed up at Croy, Inverness-shire. The group consists of a portion of the beam, the indicator, and the pans of a balance, two suspension pieces in the shape of birds, three weights, and a leaden whorl. In construction the balance exactly resembles balances of the Viking period in Norway and Sweden. Metallurgical analysis indicates that the material is bronze coated with tin.