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Description: | A cast copper-alloy centre-looped cosmetic pestle dating to the 1st to 2nd century AD. The cosmetic pestle is in plan has an almost straight upper edge which has an incomplete integral loop protruding from the centre. The breaks of the loop are not too recent. Either side of the loop the upper edge is slightly concave. The lower edge of the pestle is convex and tapers at each terminal to a rounded blunt point. In section the pestle is sub-oval with a slightly flattened upper edge. The surface of the pestle has an incomplete well developed thin dark green patina, otherwise it is abraded and slightly pitted. It measures 42.49mm long, 13.3mm wide across the loop and 6.97mm thick. It weighs 10.9g.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. A similar example is illustrated in Jackson (ibid) No. 93.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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