A bone parchment pricker with staining at the tip from the iron point. The shaft has three bands of fine incised grooves beneath a globular head. The bands of grooves are paralleled on prickers from Norwich and Southampton. 13th to 15th century soil lay

A bone parchment pricker with staining at the tip from the iron point. The shaft has three bands of fine incised grooves beneath a globular head. The bands of grooves are paralleled on prickers from Norwich and Southampton. 13th to 15th century soil layer. From VR72-80, Victoria Road, Winchester, Hampshire. Excavated by Winchester Archaeology Section, 1972-1980.

Bone parchment pricker

Medieval

Found in the 1970s during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at Victoria Road, Winchester, Hampshire

This kind of object is believed to have been equipped with a small metal point and used to prick small holes on each side of a manuscript page, marking the position of the horizontal lines. Two were found at Victoria Road, a site in Winchester's northern suburb of Hyde. In medieval times, not many people were literate, even kings. Was there a literate medieval person living at Victoria Road, or was this object used at Hyde Abbey and only discarded outside the precinct walls?

A bone parchment pricker with staining at the tip from the iron point. The shaft has three bands of fine incised grooves beneath a globular head. The bands of grooves are paralleled on prickers from Norwich and Southampton. 13th to 15th century soil lay