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Description: | Cast copper alloy cosmetic pestle of late Iron Age to early Roman date circa 100 BC - 200 AD. It is sub-rectangular in plan with both the terminals tapering to blunt points and sub-triangular (U shaped) in cross section. The pestle measures 50.8mm long, 10.7mm wide, and is 6.7mm thick. In profile the pestle is bowed with a loop at one end. The loop is sub oval (droplet shaped) in profile and measures 14.7mm long, 11.6mm wide, and 4.3mm thick. The cast hole through the loop is sub-triangular and measures 5mm x 4.2mm. It weighs 11.97 grams.
The body of the pestle curves and has with a thick rounded lower edge which tapers to a blunt point. This lower edge would have acted as the grinding part of the pestle and would have fitted into a similar shaped mortar. There is no obvious wear marks visible on this lower edge, but this might be due to the large amounts of corrosion present. On the upper edge of the body near the loop is a small sub-rectangular lug. This is also abraded. The pestle has a mid brown/light green uneven patina colour. The patina has been chipped in several places and this has resulted in a light green powdery corrosion developing. The pestle is also slightly asymmetrical; this has probably been caused by damage in the plough soil.
Similar end-looped cosmetic pestles can be seen in Jackson??s paper on 'Cosmetic sets from the late Iron Age and Roman Britain' (1985: Britannia, Vol. 16, pp 165 - 192). The closest parallel comes from a context dated to the late 2nd -early 3rd century AD from Wanborough (pages 176-177, fig. 2). | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Reavill, Peter - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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