| SPECIFICATIONS | ||
| Alloy | Lead | |
| Type | Cast | |
| Length | 30. mm | |
| Width | 13. mm | |
| Thickness | 11. mm | |
| Weight | 16.10 gms | |
| Shape | Trunk | |
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This small lead item is of the same shape of larger terracotta seal which in my view could imply this is also was a small seal. The exact usage is unknown. They are listed under lead Objects and are called Interrupted Ear-rings in the 1999 catalog by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe titled Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . Listings M.20-M.35 have range in weight from 58 gmsdown to just 2 gms with no prefered weights. A second lead item of similar shape obtained at same time was 11.03 gms. They were both obtained directly from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book.
The term "Interrupted Ear-rings" has been used on them since they are also found appearing like-so with item shown above then being a broken or cut half. Use as an Ear-ring is in my opinion unlikely because of weight.
The could be related to Manilla used for African Slave Trade.However those are generally larger and of copper.
If anyone has information on the age of items like it please let me know details about it.
The lead ingot was scanned at 600dpi and displayed at 400dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka.