01-27-2007, 10:56 PM
Quote:Based on the dimensions and attributes I can't surmise that it’s anything else. It sure as heck isn't a furniture knob.....
I'm fairly certain it isn't a helmet crest knob (the lug beneath what appears to be the base is wrong since they were usually either integral to the bowl (Montefortino) or soldered in place (Coolus)). Best parallel I can come up with after a very brief search is a bone object from Aldborough* identified as a fan handle. This isn't as daft as it seems as a lot of personal items (pins, needles, combs) were functionally the same, even though made from different materials (bone, wood, copper alloy etc). It shares the stem with the slit pieced by a lateral hole, as well as the bead-and-reel moulded decoration, but the Aldborough object is much longer (but we don't have a lot of Roman fans to play with, so that needn't mean much).
Mike Bishop
*Bishop, M.C. 1996: Finds from Roman Aldborough. A Catalogue of Small Finds from the Romano-British Town of Isurium Brigantum, Oxbow Monograph 65, Oxford
