Roman Multi-Functional Long-Handled Instruments: A Colchester Perspective

Roman long-handled ligulae , spoon-probes and spatula-probes are usually referred to as toilet equipment associated with the preparation and application of cosmetics and unguents. British and continental funerary assemblages show that they can also appear in medical kits, where they would have served a similar use for salves and other medicaments, and a few have been found with writing equipment, probably having been used in the preparation of inks. There is some possibility that they may have served a similar purpose for painters’ pigments. This paper brings together 197 of these instruments in the collection of Colchester Museums and assesses the evidence for their use and disposal in an urban environment, as well as any bias in their recovery. The alloys used in the manufacture of some examples have been analysed and compared to other Romano-British assemblages. A considerable number were found in the area of Colchester’s suburban Temple 10, which has been associated with both healing and votive deposition, but which lay in an area also used for the disposal of urban waste.