ROMAN MINIATURE OBJECT

An incomplete copper alloy minature object: razor or miniature knife. The handle of the knife is rectangular in section and an elongated trapezoid in plan. The terminal of the handle has a wider perforated lug. The opposite terminal has a fragment of th blde remaining. The upper edge of the blade is flush with the handle and is slightly thicker than the lower edge. The lower edge is abraded and forms a sub-triangular blade with a convex edge. This is proably not the original edge. The surface of the blade ha s a well developed mid to dark green patina. It measures 50.86mm long, 11.34mm wide, 1.99mm thick and weighs 2.2g.A similar knife has been recorded on th PAS database: LIN-535BB3. The Finds Liaison Officer, Adam Daubney comments that 'similarly formed life-sized iron blades are known measuring up to circa 150mm in length, around twice the size of the Nettleton knife (Manning 1985: 119). These characteristic life-sized blades form Manning's Type 24 (ibid: 116, fig.29) and date from the Iron Age and into the Roman period. The knife can also be compared to an iron reaping hook discovered at the votive causeway site at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire (Field & Parker Pearson 2003: 73, fig. 4.18.2). The Fiskerton example measures 153mm in length and has a broad curving blade and a narrow tapering tang with an upturned end. The Nettleton example is of similar form but with an incomplete terminal that curves to the side rather than upwards.Another example similar to the Worcestershire knife is illustrated in Green (1976 A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain B.A.R. No. 24), Plate 25g. This example was found in the midden which had spilled into a shrine. Green (ibid, p.75) suggests these knives are representing sacrifical objects which are found more often in rurual shrines rather than urban ones.