Rights Holder: Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service
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PROBE

Unique ID: SF-FF6B46

Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow status: Awaiting validation

a copper alloy Roman probe terminal. This is probably from a toilet spoon, but only the probe and a short length of shaft, broken in antiquity, survive. The probe is solid, and an elongated oval-shape measuring 22.61mm in length. The shaft is circular in cross-section, and 1.9mm in diameter, and survives for a length of 15.32mm. Very similar examples are known from Roman Colchester.
Probes are thought to have been used for the application of cosmetics, or medicaments, particularly to the eye or ear areas.

Subsequent actions

Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder

Chronology

Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 43
Date to: Circa AD 410

Dimensions and weight

Quantity: 1
Length: 38.71 mm
Weight: 3.12 g

Discovery dates

Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 1st March 2007

Personal details

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Materials and construction

Primary material: Copper alloy

Spatial metadata

Region: Eastern (European Region)
County or Unitary authority: Essex (County)
District: Braintree (District)
To be known as: Belchamp St Paul

Spatial coordinates

Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.

Discovery metadata

Method of discovery: Metal detector
General landuse: Cultivated land
Specific landuse: Character undetermined

References cited

Author	Publication Year	Title	Publication Place	Publisher	Pages	Reference
Crummy, N.	1983	Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman small finds from excavations in Colchester, 1971-9	Colchester	Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd	fig.65, nos 1929, 1931

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Timeline of associated dates

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Audit data

Recording Institution: SF
Created: 16 years ago
Updated: 13 years ago

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