Compound utensil

Titles

Roman "Swiss Army Knife"

Eating implement, folding, with three-pronged fork, spatula, pick, spike and knife.

As well as a knife, spoon, and fork, this implement provides a spike, spatula and small pick. The spike might have helped in extracting the meat from snails, and the spatula in poking sauce out of narrow-necked bottles: the pick could have served as a tooth-pick. While many less elaborate folding knives survive in bronze, this one’s complexity and the fact that it is made of silver suggest it is a luxury item, perhaps a useful gadget for a wealthy traveller.

Named entities

Compound utensil

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought
Dates: 1990

Dating

Middle Roman

Measurements and weight

Height: 88 mm
Width: 155 mm

Components of the work

Knife composed of iron

Materials used in production

Silver

Associated department: Antiquities

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: GR.1.1991
Primary reference Number: 70534
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011
Updated: Thursday 19 November 2020
Last processed: Tuesday 22 December 2020
Data source: Adlib

Associated institutions

The Fitzwilliam Museum

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


    The Fitzwilliam Museum (2020) "Compound utensil"
    Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/70534 Accessed: 2021-01-17 03:52:15

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


     {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/70534|title=Compound utensil|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2021-01-17 03:52:15|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}