Bronze Spoon from Northfield Farm, Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire: 2nd century AD

About a mile north-west of the Roman town of Dorchester, excavations in 1969 by the bank of the Thames uncovered part of a 2nd century AD Romano-British farmstead. The small number of personal possessions found suggests a very simple, but Romanized, lifestyle.

The little bronze spoon with its small circular bowl and pointed handle is a Roman design for eating shellfish, snails and winkles, hence its Latin name, cochleare or "sheller"; it is thought that the European edible snail was brought to Britain by the Romans. It was also used for eating eggs, perhaps the more likely use it was put to here on this British farm.