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Description: | A cast copper alloy nail cleaner (length: 41mm; width at shoulders of blade: 12mm; thickness at shoulders of blade: 4mm; weight: 4.24g). Intregrally cast with the blade, the small handle/ end knob (length: 12mm) has bead, reel and spool mouldings. Slightly unusually, the nail cleaner has no suspension loop which is more common throughout the west in comparison to the east of the country (Nina Crummy). The blade tapers fairly gently from shoulders to the blade where the forked tip has been broken off. The front of the blade has been engraved/ incised with possible animal motifs including two possible beasts facing opposite directions. This decoration, however, is fairly crude and mostly consists of unidentifiable linear markings.
The overall condition of the artefact is fair with a smooth dark brown patina. Other than the forked tip being broken and a number of scratch marks on the back, the object is complete.
A similar example was found during the excavations in Colchester 1971-9. Even though it has a suspension loop, it has the same bead, reel and spool mouldings. This artefact was dated from mid-late 1st century, and probably continuing into the 2nd century (Crummy, 1983). A nail cleaner found without a suspension loop was found during the 1964-1966 excavations at Alcester and had a domed subspherical head and two well-defined collars beneath (Cracknell & Mahany, 1994). | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 50
200 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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