Rights Holder: Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service
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COSMETIC MORTAR
Unique ID: SF-C55C98
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
a copper alloy Late Iron Age or Roman cosmetic mortar. The bow is crescent shaped but incomplete, both terminals are missing due to old breaks.The bow measures 38.49mm in length,8.24mm in width and 5.63mm in depth. The central groove shows signs of wear and is c.3mm in depth. The central loop at the base of the mortar is oval and is 12.94mm in length and 7.8mm in width. Above the central loop on both faces there are three recessed triangular cells, which would have contained enamel originally, this is now missing. This cosmetic mortar is late Iron Age or Roman in date and such objects are unique to Roman Britain, only one having been found outside Britain, in Northern France. They are believed to have been used with a pestle to grind small quantities of powder or cosmetics and have an association with fertility, reflected in their crescentic shape and male and female heads at the terminals.
Class: Centre-looped
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: IRON AGE
Period from: IRON AGE
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa 100 BC
Date to: Circa AD 410
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 38.49 mm
Width: 8.24 mm
Thickness: 5.63 mm
Weight: 5.93 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 9th July 2006
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: Eastern (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Suffolk (County)
District: Mid Suffolk (District)
To be known as: Coddenham
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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