COSMETIC MORTAR

An incomplete cast copper alloy end looped cosmetic mortar of late Iron Age to Early Roman date, probably about AD 43 - 200.

The object compromises of a longitudinal grooved vessel which expands to 6.96mm wide in the centre and tapers to a point at either end. The groove is V shaped in section. The upper edges of the walls are chipped and missing. There is a circular loop at one end of the mortar positioned beneath the top edge. The mortar groove continues on to the loop and half way down the end. Simple ridge mouldings definig each side of the groove also continue onto the loop, meeting half way down the end and continuing as a single ridge to the base of the loop. Further simple ridged moulding defines the edge of the circular hole, which is elongated towards the base of the loop by wear. These mouldings are also chipped. The other end is truncated and missing owing to an old, patinated break. The metal has a dark grey green patina. The mortar would have had a corresponding pestle and examples of these can be found elsewhere on the database. The mortar is 31.06mm long, 6.9mm wide and 14.6mm thick. 5.6g.

Similar end looped cosmetic pestles can be seen in Ralph Jackson's 'Cosmetic sets of late Iron Age and Roman Britain' (2010); compare especially number 80 (also from West Yorkshire) and 239. Ralph Jackson notes that: "The majority of finds [of cosmetic tools] indicate a heyday in the 1st to 3rd centuries, with a particular intensity of use in the late 1st to 2nd century". Cosmetic sets are a British object type and were in use before the Roman invasion.