File:69 ring thimble base (FindID 66530).jpg

English: Ring thimble

Medieval 13th-14th century

26mm long, 14mm tall, 0.7mm thick



The artefact is made from a sheet of copper alloy.  

The thimble would have originally been circular but has been flattened at some point in antiquity.  The outside edge of the thimble has six rows of rather closely packed stamped oval indentations.  There are two ridges, one above and one below the oval indentations, the bottom ridge is twice as wide (8mm) as the top one, both run around the circumference of the thimble.  Below the bottom ridge is a recessed line (1.3mm wide) that has the remains of regular stamped decoration running along its length comprising of a single oval every 2.5mm. The base is slightly wider than the top (26mm at base, 22mm at top).

There is about 50% of the original patina left which is a mid-dark green, the rest of the artefact where the original surface does not survive has a reddish/brown colour.

Examples of this type of thimble can be found in late 13th –14th century contexts in York and is thought to represent one of the earliest type of thimble (Ottaway & Rodgers, 2002, 2739-2740).