Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Unique ID: LANCUM-599841
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A stone cosmetic mortar of Roman date. It is a square piece of stone with bevelled edges. It has numerous grooves and scrapes on both sides.
Small slabs of stone were used as palettes on which to mix cosmetics or medicines; these palettes have bevelled edges, and were probably kept with the more decorative bevelled side up. This is suggested by this example where it is the undersurface that has been worn by the action of mixing; palettes have been found with edges worn by the sharpening of scalpels. They date to the early part of the first century AD.
It is similar to examples recovered from Colchester (Crummy, 1983), nos. 1865 and 1867; fig 61, p. 57-58.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 43
Date to: Circa AD 100
Quantity: 1
Length: 50 mm
Height: 14 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight: 179 g
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 21st March 2014
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Primary material: Stone
Manufacture method: Ground/polished
Completeness: Complete
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.