Dorchester-on-Thames lies at a strategic intersection of the River Thames with the important north-south Roman road running from Towcester (on Akeman Street) to Silchester. A late Iron Age oppidum was succeeded by a Roman town, walled at the end of the 3rd century. The walled town continued to be occupied from the 5th to the 9th centuries.

That Roman standards of hygiene and beauty were emulated in Britain is demonstrated by the early appearance of Roman-style bathing establishments in towns and villas, and the frequent finds of small instruments used for personal hygiene. When a Romanized lady visited the town baths, numerous aids to beauty would have accompanied her: a strigil for scraping the body, an oil-flask to re-annoint it; perfumes, comb, mirror, manicure implements and "make up"; white ochre for the face, red for the lips and cheeks, antimony for eyebrows, phials, jars, palettes and rods for mixing.

The combination ear-scoop and nail-cleaner, an alternative to the more usual collection of instruments on a ring, comes from the site of a 3rd-century Roman town house in Dorchester. The construction and decoration of the house were not luxurious - there were no signs of mosaic floors, decorative painted walls or window glass - but the assortment of toilet implements and pins found indicated at least one fastidious occupant.