STRAINER

Copper alloy broken handle from a Roman strainer. The handle has broken into 3 pieces but these pieces form the whole handle. The handle is cast to form a flat slender handle. At the terminal the handle flares out forming a triangular shaped end. At the waist, the handle widens again and a small curved lug on each side pointing twards the top of the handle where the strainer bown would once have been. At the broken end of the handle it widens out to where it would have been attached to the pan or bowl part of the utensil - a tiny amount of the rim of this part remains intach. The handle is undecorated and unmarked apart from a small and mistruck makers mark on the underside of the central section of handle. There are several examples of metal strainer throughout classical antiquity with a variety of possible functions. Most commonly, strainers were pan shaped; similar in form to the standard skillet, with a decoratively pierced base (like a modern colander) and a long handle. On this example, a makers mark has been stamped on the back of the handle although it has been mistruck. The maker's mark looks like [...]C(or G)VSF, and the letter before C/G may be A. ...ACVS is a possible name-ending, although no appropriate stamp is known. However, There is a published strainer from London stamped SANGVSF, so this find may be another (Roger Tomlin, pers. comm.). Strainers were used for filtering the sediment from wine and for the cooling of wine. The vessel would have been filled with ice and wine poured through it to cool the liquid. Other strainers were in the form of large spoons such as two silver spoon strainers that were found among the items in the Hoxne hoard. Silver strainers feature in a number of late Roman hoards including three examples from the Thetford hoard. With most strainers there is nothing to indicate whether the object was for use as a secular or religious item, however, there is some evidence that from the late Roman period onwards, some strainers and spoons may have played a role in Christian liturgy. Examples of silver strainers from the Traprain hoard in Scotland (dating to around 400AD) had Christian Chi-Rho symbols suggesting their possible use in a Christian religious ceremony. The handle weighs 45.06g altogether and measures approximately 192mm in length, 46.1mm in width (at the top of the handle where it would have been attached tot he strainer) and 1.8mm in thickness.