Fishing - VERY Old School

When I was over in England last month one of my digging cronies gave me a couple of peculiar ceramic items he had picked up off a beach.  I guess they are common, he said he has about 600 of them.

These were found on the West Coast somewhere around Maryport.  Archaeological stuff from all eras turns up on those shores and if you work with the local authorities with regards to the remarkable things its quite legal to pick them up.

I did find some uncertainty out there on the internet.  THIS expressed uncertainty not only as to the age of the artifacts but their intended use.  In fact it mentions that some things that look like this are not artifacts at all but soft stones that have been burrowed into by mollusks!

But for several reasons I'm calling these fishing weights.  They have turned up on shorelines in large enough numbers that alternate explanations such as loom weights are implausible.  And in at least one report a series of them were found perfectly spaced out.....just as you'd expect if they came off a weighted fishing net.

Age is hard to judge.  A few of these things have initials or a cross on them.  Certainly not Roman.  Medieval is possible, but cheap low tech technology often survived well into the modern era.

Just for fun I might try using one as a sinker and see if I can catch a 21st century fish with one of these!