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Two pieces of Roman knife handle reunited

Eagle-eyed readers might remember seeing this find a few months back in my article on a reader’s find: Roman Knife Handle. It was found several years since by Stephen Palmer. There are three images: the first as it was shown the first time it appeared on this website and the other two with an extra piece.

Stephen said that on days that are unfit for detecting he has recently been working his way through boxes of bits and piece he has accumulated over the years. During one session he came across a piece of copper-alloy, which looked as if it could be part of his Roman knife handle. Sure enough, when he offered it up to the end it fitted!

When I originally saw images of Stephen’s find I said the running creature was missing the tip from its foreleg. In actual fact, the foreleg was joined to the recently discovered piece.

The main body of this knife handle is in the form of a running hound, the foreleg of which has attached to it what is probably meant to be a rabbit or a hare. Therefore, the whole handle is meant to represent a hound in the act of grasping hold of its prey.

The two parts could now be joined together. If the breaks are clean then this could be done successfully using superglue.

Stephen sad he is now wondering how many of the incomplete finds unearthed by detectorists could be put back together by sorting through boxes full of bits and pieces? Had he not kept several boxes full then the two parts of a Roman knife handle would never have been reunited.

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