File:Nail cleaner (FindID 803943).jpg

English: A cast copper alloy, nail cleaner strap end dating to the late Roman period. The strap end is an elongated oval shape with a forked end for use as a nail cleaner. The top suspension area has a single off-centre hole with incurved niches to each side. It is possible that this is the remnants of there having been three holes within the suspension area. The extreme top of that area has been fractured off in antiquity, thus the remaining holes may simply have been decoration, with the actual suspension loop, now missing. The extreme tip of the nail cleaner is also missing.

The blade has been incised with a zoomorphic design of a peacock facing a stylised horse. The decoration continues along the edges with small sharply incised curvus lines and the top of the suspension area, has a series of punched indentations. There is also an incised groove delineating the top fixing area from the blade. The back of the object is plain but for a series of parallel incised groves across the suspension hole area, delineating the blade from the top fixing area. The junction of blade and suspension loop are/were probably in the same plane. The surface has a mid to dark green mottled patina.

The form and decoration of this piece can be compared to the series of late Roman 'nail-cleaner strap-ends', as discussed by Eckardt and Crummy (2008); the decoration of a peacock has Christian connotations. Eckardt and Crummy illustrate other examples with Christian iconography, and an example in Hereford Museum also depicts a peacock with the tree of life. Other Christian iconography seen on nail cleaner strap ends include a Chi-Rho symbol, a griffin, and a fish. The religious symbolism employed on these pieces strongly suggests that they date from the mid 4th century onwards; this dating is reinforced by contextual evidence provided by a number of Eckardt and Crummy's examples from excavated sites (ibid. 90).