Ancient Roman Silver Spatula Probe, Solid Silver, 1st-3rd century AD

  
Ancient and authentic Roman silver spatula-probe, 1st-3rd century AD. This instrument is called a "spathomela". It is formed of a thin and smooth rod with one end flat and long, a spatula, while the other end ends in a small probe. This instrument was used for the preparation of medicines or ointments. Roman doctors often made their own medicines using various tools: grinders and grinding tablets, mortars, forceps (vulsella, volsella), as well as probes of different shapes, such as spatula probes (spathomela).

Period: 1st - 3rd century AD. Total height: 14.1 cm. Spatula dimensions: 4.4 cm long.

Probe dimension: 1.7 cm long. Condition: Very good condition, cleaned by a professional. Provenance: Cyprus - private collection. The island of Cyprus was part of the Roman Empire from 58 BC.

The Christianization of the Eastern Roman Empire transformed it into the Byzantine Empire to which the island continued to belong until 649 and from 965 to 1192.