KNIFE

An incomplete copper alloy Roman knife/razor handle. This is rectangular in shape and in cross-section, with a waisted terminal, circular in cross-section at its outer end.Iits inner end is covered with iron corrosion where the blade would have projected originally. All four faces of the handle are covered incised decoration. On the wider faces this consists of three transverse grooves across each end and between these three rectangles of equal size formed from lines of small incised dots. Each rectangle contains a saltire cross formed from two incised solid lines, two opposite quadrants of each cross (alternating in position) filled with incised annulets. The narrow faces are decorated with scrolls of small incised dots surrounded by groups of three dots. It survives in good condition with a dark green patina. Traces of a white metal coating are visible in places on the surface.

It is very similar in form to a number of bone handles exacavated at Colchester, two of which have similar incised linear decoration (Crummy 1983, 108, fig.110, particularly nos.2921, 2922, 2925, 2926). Crummy (ibid., 107) dates these to the Claudian-Neonian period with some continuation into the early Flavian period and it is possible that the present example may be of a similar date.

Length: 56.33mm, width: 11.49mm, thickness: 7.81mm, weight: 23.39g