ROMAN MINIATURE OBJECT

A Roman (AD 43-410) copper alloy probable miniature votive spear (or possible hair pin), bent and measuring 85.16mm in length (unbent, c.118mm). It weighs 4.4g.At one end is a flat head, cut to a point at the end. It has a central piercing 3.15mm in diameter. At this point it is max.8.20mm wide and 1.30mm thick, narrowing behind into the shank (3.57x1.89mm) where it thickens. The area between shank and piercing is decorated on both sides with an incised X bound above and below with a pair of transverse lines (on one side, only one transverse line flanks the hole). At the top of the shank there appear to be worn diagonal grooves on both sides.The shank becomes circular in cross-section where it is bent and is c.2.55mm in diameter. It narrows to the rounded point at the other end.Philippa Walton, National Finds Adviser, comments: I suggest that this is a votive spear. There are none exactly the same anywhere although perforated examples do exist in the Piercebridge assemblage and one from Great Walsingham (see Bagnall Smith 1999, plate 6d). See also Kiernan, P. (2009) Miniature Votive Offerings in the Roman North West, p. 98-99 for other parallels.Alternatively, you do get some Roman hair pins with perforated heads but with the head at nearly a centimetre in width I think this might be a little too big.Other suggestions, now discarded, have been a needle or possible cosmetic implement. The object does not fit comfortably with Crummy's typology of needles (1981 pp.65-7), the head of this object being much wider than the diameter of the shank. The most similar is that of spatulate headed type no. 1976 (pp.65-6, fig.70). Another possibility is that the object is a toilet instrument, as Crummy (1981) pp.60-1 no.1940, which Crummy suggests was used as a pick of some kind. The flat pointed head is unusual for this type of object however.