This is the “Fossil Friday” post #156. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
For this weeks Fossil Friday, we have an article written by ESCONI member Marie Angkuw. You might remember her sad tale about pyritized ammonites in Fossil Friday #93. This piece is about her fossil trip to England back in February 2023.
The Origin of the English Poundstone
by Marie Angkuw
Imagine living in the region of Oxfordshire, England, during the 14th century and you need to buy a chunk of butter. Though spring scales weren’t invented until 1770, a solution ensuring a standard of measure for butter sold at market came from an interesting local source.
In the fields around Oxfordshire, thousands of strange stones dotted the landscape. They were all similar in weight, symmetry, and appearance. Resourceful dairymaids recognized the practical use of these stones as counterweights in the sale of butter and cream. Known as Chedworth Buns or Poundstones, they were also used for beads, flour, wool, and other goods. To ease trade with other countries, a 1389 royal statute established a standard of measurements: for example, 1 stone for butter, 26 stones for a sack of wool, and 5 stones for glass.
With their 5-fold symmetry, relative flatness, and a resemblance to modern sand dollars, the stones piqued the interest of the scientific community during the 18th century. As discourse and discovery progressed, they were eventually accepted as fossilized sea urchins. That they were found so far from the ocean only fueled the growing interest and debate in geologic strata and the early theories of evolution.
These sea urchins – Clypeus plotti –are Middle Jurassic in age (174 – 163.5 mya) and many are found today in the area of Gloucestershire. The term “stone” is still used in the weighing of dry goods in the UK. It is an imperial unit of mass equivalent to 14 pounds.
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