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Description: | A copper-alloy Late Iron Age to early Roman cosmetic pestle. The pestle, in plan is a pelta shape, with the crescentic edge forming the grinding edge. This edge is rounded in section. The side surfaces of the pestle is flat and undecorated. The terminal of the central stem has a bifoil shape which may be an broken loop. One of the lower terminals has a shallow groove as decoration. The surface of the pestle has a mottled dark green to mid green patina, with some pitting. It measures 54.15mm in length, 22.35mm wide from the apex of the grinding edge to the terminal of the central stem and is 4.92mm thick. It weighs 14.3g.
If the object is a pestle, it is of an atypical type. Jackson (Jackson, R. 1985 ??Cosmetic Sets from Late Iron Age and Roman Britain?? Britannia) illustrates a similar shaped pestle, No. 96, but this is particular small, has a complete central loop and no decoration on the lower terminals. The pestle would have been used with a crescent-shaped mortar with a central longitudinal groove to grind up small quantities of powder or cosmetics. These cosmetic sets are only found in Britain during the Romano-British period. They date, according to Jackson (Jackson, R. 1985 ??Cosmetic Sets from Late Iron Age and Roman Britain?? Britannia) to the late Iron Age and Roman periods. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Bolton, Angie - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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