Page 136 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

R. PRICEETAL.:THEKENNEMERLAND
be a variant on class 4. Examples of each class are illustrated in Figs 6 to 9, while four of the unique ingots are presented in Fig. 10. The result of lengthy study and deliberation, this classification is more detailed than the gen- eralized one produced in the privately- circulated preliminary report on the 1976 season. Some of the types identified then can, however, be equated closely with the present classes, especially the long oval type with class 8, the wide oval type with class 3, the flat irregular type with classes 1A and lB, and the two handled type with classes 4 and 7.
A few other features of these ingots are worth noting. Several of them had striations along their sides, a normal product of cooling and not necessarily a reflection of multiple pourings. Cooling must also account for the concavity of the top surface on many examples, usually centred over the deepest part of the ingot. Some pieces also displayed marked bumps on their under sides, possibly reflecting damage to a sand mould caused when starting to pour in molten metal. Deposition and settling on the sea-bed had occasionally re- sulted in dents or slight buckling, usually around the pointed ends. Corrosion only affected the outer surfaces of the lead, creating a white or grey patina in many instances; several examples were also heavily encrusted with worm casts and other marine deposits where they had been lying exposed. Two ingots bore more elaborate surface decoration than just a selection of stamps; number 69 possessed a large engraving looking somewhat like a letter
‘A’, while number 53 carried a linear design, possibly now incomplete (Fig. 11). No plausible explanations have yet appeared to account for these features.
Archaeologicalanalysis
In view of the fact that so little is known about 17th century lead production and marketing, in contrast to the greater quantity of information available concerning the 18th century industry, it seemed worthwhile embarking on a formal archaeological analysis of this assemblage in order t o extract the maximum information possible from it on its own terms. In essence there are five attributes available to us for study; shape, weight, metallurgical constitution, surface stamps, and sea-bed location. Unfortu- nately it has not so far been possible to secure a comprehensive metallurgical analysis of samples from this collection, although we would hope to acheve this; amongst other things it might help identify the ore used. It is known that the Low Countries generally imported lead from either England (especially Derbyshire) or central Europe at this period, and it would be interesting to know whether the Kennemerland was loaded with supplies from just one source. While this point escapes
us at present, it is possible to investigate the homogeneity of the assemblage in other respects.
The 13 shape classes were identified by Messrs Muckelroy and Willies without any difficulty or disagreements, consciously seeking to identify groups of ingots which were suf-
Figure9.Ingotclass 10(no.109).
0 10 20 30 cm
17