Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records. Introduction Mirrors could take the form of a flat, polished metal surface held by a handle (Leahy and Lewis 2018, 110-111); silvered glass as …more
Category: Roman
AD 43 – AD 410
Cosmetic Grinders (2001 guide)
Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records. Introduction These sets, comprising a pestle and mortar, are likely to have been used for grinding small quantities of powders for cosmetic or medicinal …more
Toggles (2001 guide)
Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records. Introduction Toggles have received very little study (see Jackson 1990; nos 83-87). The ancestral toggle is basically a cylinder with symmetrical mouldings and a …more
Tweezers (2001 guide)
Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records. Introduction There are essentially three types of tweezers, all easy to recognise but hard to date. First there are those made from sheet, with …more
Spatulae
Introduction Spatulae are instruments which flare from a handle to a rounded or straightened blade terminal, the latter used for the purposes of spreading. Most spatulae encountered through the PAS are Roman and were used to spread wax onto wooden writing tablets, and also to clear the recess in the tablet prior to reuse (Leahy …more
Steelyard Weights
Introduction The balance known as a steelyard required weights that could be suspended. This was achieved either by hanging weights using integral or separately added loops, or by perforating a weight centrally to take a separate wire bent into a loop. Weights used on steelyards were fundamentally made of lead; this was encased as a …more
Steelyards
Introduction Steelyards are portable ‘scales with beam arms of unequal length’ (Crummy 1983, 99), rather than being an equal-arm balance. They therefore had a fulcrum close to one end, or more specifically two; the material being weighed (the load) was suspended via a loop at the terminal of the same end, often in a pan, …more
Padlocks
Introduction A padlock is a detachable, hanging lock which can be easily moved around. All padlocks essentially have two halves, either hinged or separate, which are pulled apart to open the padlock and locked shut to close it. For padlock keys, see the separate guide to keys. PAS object type(s) to be used We use …more
Styli, pencils and parchment-prickers
Introduction A stylus (plural styli) is a writing implement used to scratch letters into the wax of a writing tablet. A pencil makes a coloured mark on wood, paper or parchment. A writing tablet was usually made from wood or bone and had slightly recessed panels filled with wax (see, for example, the early-medieval Blythburgh …more
Ceramics (including the Pottery Guide)
The PAS has produced a guide to the recording of pottery vessels which can be downloaded as a pdf here: PAS Pottery Recording Guide. Other ceramic items (clay pipes, ceramic lamps and moulds, kiln furniture and so on) are briefly noted towards the end of the Pottery Recording Guide, with recommendations as to the object …more