Fragmentary Tweezers

These two broken strips may have once joined to form a single instrument, likely tweezers. The finished ends of the strips are slightly wider than the broken ends, which would have formed a sharp bend and are still slightly curved (1). In the ancient world, tweezers were used both as part of a surgeon’s kit and also as a standard cosmetic item for depilation (2). NOTES: 1. Compare A. F. Ferrazzoli, “Byzantine Small Finds from Elaiussa Sebaste,” in Byzantine Small Finds in Archaeological Contexts, eds. B. Böhlendorf-Arslan and A. Ricci, BYZAS 15 (Istanbul, 2012) 289-307, esp. 295 and 306, no. 73, pl. 7; M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 53, nos. 118-19; M. Kunze, Meisterwerke antiker Bronzen und Metallarbeiten aus der Sammlung Borowski 1: Griechische und römische Bronzen (Ruhpolding and Mainz, 2007) 57, no. G 72 (inv. no. GR 034B), dated to the eighth to seventh centuries BCE; and Los bronces romanos en España, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Palacio de Velazquez (Madrid, 1990) 305, no. 269 (far left). 2. J. S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Oxford, 1907) 90-93; L. J. Bliquez, Roman Surgical Instruments and Other Minor Objects in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mainz, 1994) 60; and P. M. Allison, The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii 3: The Finds (Oxford, 2006) 29. David Smart and Lisa M. Anderson