Iron Scramasax (or Knife Blade) from Oxford: 8th century

The little knife comes from the earliest period of the town’s development, the little community living by the Thames river crossing opposite Christ Church Meadow under the present-day St Aldates.

We know from the grave-goods found in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries that small personal knives were carried by both men and women between the 5th and 7th centuries, so it seems likely that this knife too could have belonged to either. The "tang" or narrow end was designed for insertion into a handle, perhaps of wood.

A personal knife would have been essential for daily tasks at a period when nothing could be bought and little traded, but everything had to be made from materials to hand. It was also essential for meals, which would have been taken sitting or squatting around the hearth or fire, probably helping oneself from communal portions into an individual bowl held in the lap. Later in Medieval times, when meals became more formal and were eaten at a table, women no longer carried personal knives, so the men (who still did) performed the cutting - hence the custom of alternating sexes at table.