Carved Lead Alloy Weight (VCU_3D_5018)

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This lead alloy weight, expertly carved from a solid piece, was salvaged from the sunken ship Betsy, situated in the York River off the coast of Yorktown, Virginia. It boasts an array of intricately incised letters, numbers, and designs that add to its unique character. The well-preserved remains of Betsy allowed researchers to gather valuable data on eighteenth-century shipbuilding techniques and furnishings (Broadwater 1992:39). This artifact was part of a fleet deliberately sunk by the British in 1781. For further information, consult John Broadwater's 1992 publication, Shipwreck in a Swimming Pool: An Assessment of the Methodology and Technology Utilized on the Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project, which appears in Historical Archaeology 26(4):26-46. The artifact was digitally reconstructed using a Go!Scan 50 at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources' archaeological curation facility in Richmond, Virginia. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources graciously granted permission for the downloadable model to be used for non-commercial educational purposes only.