File:Nail cleaner (FindID 55230).jpg

English: An unusual copper-alloy Roman nail cleaner. It consists of a rectangular shaft, measuring 58.80mm in length, 4.75mm in width and 2.84mm in thickness, at its thickest point. Both of the terminals of this shaft are tapering in thickness towards their ends, one end is complete and has a V-shaped notch in its centre, which has created to pointed tips, which were presumably the cleaning end of this toilet implement. The other terminal has also become thinner but appears to be incomplete due to wear, it is now rounded but perhaps likely to have originally terminated with a suspension loop of some kind, although no trace of this now remains. The front face of this nail cleaner is decorated with two evenly spaced sets of four transverse grooves, inbetween these a vertical row of four oval incisions with a small oval indentations in their centre can be seen. At the point where the incomplete terminal begins to taper in thickness there is another single transverse groove. The back face is not decorated but has a longitudinal hollow down its centre, presumably a product of the method of manufacturer used to create the nail cleaner. No parallel could be found for this nail cleaner but its form and style suggest that this is the most likely use for the object and that it is most likely to be Roman in date.