Hollow Tool with Spatula

The hollow, tapering, circular-sectioned shaft is now filled with material, obscuring the interior. The wedge-shaped blade is broken or cut at an angle. A handle of a separate material may have been inserted into the hollow end (1). Greek and Roman medical instruments, many of which were described by ancient authors, have been found, sometimes in sets, throughout the ancient world (2). The instruments could have been used for more than one function, making precise classification difficult in some instances. NOTES: 1. Compare a chisel from Cologne with a similar hollow shaft but a much longer blade in J. S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (New York, 1907) 122, pl. 41.2. For instruments with similar wedge-shaped tongues, see 1940.138 and L. J. Bliquez, Roman Surgical Instruments and Other Minor Objects in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mainz, 1994) pls. 2.3 and 3.12. 2. Milne 1907 (supra 1) 1-9; and D. Michaelides, “A Roman Surgeon’s Tomb from Nea Paphos,” Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1984: 315-32, esp. 321-23. David Smart