My Favourite Find

[Sunny]

Here is my favourite metal detecting find. It is a Roman scalpel, from a surgeons kit.
But unlike most scalpels of the era this one is really posh, so was obviously owned by someone of either status or flamboyance ....take your pick !
The handle has straight facets and from the iron staining on the base. It may have been attached to an iron loop.
Given that it is made of bronze I'm not sure it would have had a sharp enough blade for surgery, so perhaps its a spatula rather than a cutting tool. They had iron which would have produced a sharper edge. If anyone knows then please shout.
Cheers
Nick

[painshill]

It may or may not be for surgical use... but is it not a spatula rather than a scalpel? As such it would have had a number of potential uses, including cosmetic use.

[Sunny]

painshill wrote:

It may or may not be for surgical use... but is it not a spatula rather than a scalpel? As such it would have had a number of potential uses, including cosmetic use.

  Its a good call Roger.  I have seen objects with this shaped blade both described as spatula and scalpel.  All of the papers I have read describe this item as surgical; they just differ on the use type.  Most are plain shafted, but I did see one set, recovered from Pompei, that was similarly ornate; just struggling to find it again on Google searches. 
Costemic tools are well described and I have some of the usual objects, such as tweezers and ear picks (yuck!).
I did refer once to the Museum of London catalogue of Roman finds for some of the research.
I will see if I can find the Pompei link.  It was a bit gorry though, talking about eye surgery etc... yuck  :huh:

[2ndoldman]

Thanks for the post Nick. That is a beautiful find and one that I would certainly treasure.
I know what you mean by yuk. I have watched some documentaries on the roman period and what they were doing surgically
was incredible to say the least.