Strange find, can anyone identify

[Memmia]

I read this thread a couple of days ago and that thing has been bothering me since. I don't think the finger-like things are fingers...to start there are only three, the middle one is the shortest, and they have a wider area at their end that is completley unnaturalistic for a hand. By the time they were working with iron the Romans knew how many fingers they had...

I like the drain plug idea, but I can't come up with a use for those stupid fingers, unless they are a 'grip' by which to remove the plug. The inner end is really roughly cast...that could be from age but if it is the originaly shape I imagine it'd be hard to get that to seal something.

Memmia, do the backsides of the "fingers" appear to have been broken from something, or is that just a trick of the photograph?

-Travis

Hi Travis, the 'fingers' aren't broken, it is a single cast. It seems to be a complete item rather than a part broken off anything. I don't know if you can see on the picture, but there is also a small hole in the middle of the dish shaped part. I don't know if this hole was caused by damage as it is crooked and not central (we wondered at first if it was an amulet, but the hole looks a bit too shoddily placed).

[john m roberts]

Okay, we have eagle claws clutching a cup. I bet it's from a statue of Zeus in the form of an eagle clutching Ganymede, cupbearer to the gods, in one set of talons and his cup in the other, flying off to Olympus with homoerotic, interspecies naughtiness in mind.

[Aristius_Fuscus]

Hmm. The amulet idea is a good one given its size (it looks ~4 cm.), and being so small, the hole wouldn't really need to be straight for it to hang well on a string. However, the hole is rather unfortunately placed if it were originally made as an amulet. Seeing the hole now, though, it doesn't look natural; perhaps it was made into an amulet from an earlier object? Which only begs the same question of what was it...

It looks to be shallow, but it may be deep enough that it is for holding something, something slender and cylindrical; the 'talons' would give it grip and a bit more leverage.

[Robert Vermaat]

Aristius, please add your real name to your signature. It's a forum rule.