NAIL CLEANER

An incomplete copper-alloy Roman nail cleaner. The attachment loop is set at 90 degrees from the plane of the shaft. The top of the loop is curved and the external loop diameter is 5.37mm. The perforation in the loop is sub-circular veering towards sub-square with a diameter of 1.84mm. The attachment loop rises directly from the top of the shaft but is angled so that one side of the artefact lays flatter against a flat surface than the other side. The shaft has angular shoulders 8.30mm below the base of the attachment loop. The shoulders are the widest part of the shaft with a width of 7.90mm. The sides of the shaft taper upwards from the shoulders towards the attachment loop where they join with a width of 2.61mm. The sides of the shaft also taper downwards from the shoulders for a length of 28.05mm. The lowest 3.96mm of the shaft are occupied by two points separated by a central 'V' shaped notch. One of the two points no longer survives and the other is bent so that it no longer lays in the same plane as the shaft. From the apex of this notch a short shallow incised groove runs up towards the attachment loop. This groove is present on both sides of the shaft and both only have a length of 1.85mm. This artefact weighs 1.61mm and has a total length of 45.93mm. The artefact has a rectangular cross-section (attachment loop and shaft) with the exception of the junction between the loop and shaft where the plane turns 90 degrees. This nail cleaner fits into Crummy's typology group 2a and is believed to date from the "mid to late first century probably through to the second century" Crummy, N. 1983, p.58.

See Crummy, N. 1983, p.57-58, fig.62, no.1874.