File:Late Roman nail-cleaner strap-end (FindID 623565).jpg

English: An incomplete Late Roman (AD 300-410) copper alloy probable strap-end, of Eckhardt and Crummy's 'nail-cleaner strap-end' zoomorphic type. It is broken at the attachment end, and the bifurcated end is possibly a little damaged too.

The strap end has a flat rectangular cross-section and is max.2.44mm thick. The attachment end is trapezoidal in plan tapering from 5.53mm at the worn break (where the bottom of the socket is just discernable) to 5.01mm, and is split for the strap. Just below this point and above the curved shoulders are two animal heads projecting outwards from the edges, each with a c.1mm diameter piercing at their centre. Below the body of the strap-end then expands 10.22mm at the shoulders of the 'blade' which is the shape of an inverted tear drop and extends into the bifurcated end (which thins to 1.64mm thick at the worn end).
In places the surface of the strap end is badly corroded and it is not clear exactly how or if it was decorated, although traces of possible ring-and-dot motifs are apparent on both faces.
Measures 51.91x10.22x2.44mm and weighs 5.14g.
Nail-cleaner strap-ends could have served as either or both. Of the zoomorphic decoration Eckhardt and Crummy write: 'The animal represented may be a horse, as horses and dolphins figure both on the belt-fittings discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961) and on late Roman antler combs (Crummy 2001a); the horse can therefore be seen as iconographically 'current' in the late Roman period. However, the animals can also be perceived as bird-like, with the lack of ears adding to that impression' (2006, p.84).
Reference: Eckhardt, H with Crummy, N; 2006, 'ROMAN' OR 'NATIVE' BODIES IN BRITAIN: THE EVIDENCE OF LATE ROMAN NAIL-CLEANER STRAP-ENDS in OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 25; Oxford - Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Examples of crescentic and circular lug nail-cleaner strap-ends from dated contexts come from late 3rd-/4th-century Milton Keynes, 4th-century Baldock and the 'late' phases at Richborough (Eckhardt and Crummy 2006, Table 1)