Another object of bone (Plate XCII., Fig. 21) found in the ditch of the early fort is worthy of particular mention. It resembles in shape a small spoon 5½ inches in length, having a circular hole cut in the bowl. Dr. Munro figures a similar object found in the excavation of the crannog at Lochlee, Ayrshire, describing it as "a tiny little spoon only ¾ of an inch in diameter and worn into a hole in the centre, the handle being only 2 inches long and about the diameter of a crow quill."
These articles are by no means uncommon on Romano-British sites. They are certainly not worn-out spoons as one might easily suppose from a single specimen; the hole in the bowl is of too common occurrence, and the fact that it is an intentional perforation is frequently obvious. The British Museum has seven, all with perforated bowls, from Dowkerbottom Cave and two from other caves near Settle. There are several in the Museum at York. Specimens are also to be noted in the Black Gate Museum at Newcastle and among the objects found in the excavations now in progress at Corbridge. On the other hand, they do not seem to occur among the finds from the German Limes forts, nor do they appear in Museums on the Rhine. They are, therefore, probably purely Celtic. The precise manner of their use is uncertain. Such a specimen as that found at Newstead might have been employed as a hair-pin, a cord being passed through the broad end, the better to secure it. Many examples, however, show, at what would be the point of the pin, a short cross bar or a square terminal, which would render such use impossible. It may be that they were employed, with a cord attached, to thread together, and so fasten, the two sides of a garment.
Among the miscellaneous small articles was a surgeon's probe (Plate XCIII., Fig. 13). It came from Pit LXV, and is made of brass, 4 inches long. At one end it expands into a solid bulbous head. At the other the stem, for a distance of 2 inches, is wound round with a thin flat brass wire. Probes of various sizes are common both at Novaesium and at the Saalburg, but this is probably the first that has been found in Scotland. With it should be associated the small spoon of bronze from Pit LXXXV, Plate LXXIII., Fig. 6, probably also part of the surgeon's outfit.
Scattered up and down over the fort were found what appeared to be 'men' for playing a game. These were got at all levels. They are chiefly of bone or of vitreous paste, but one or two are of stone. Those made of bone are flat button-like objects, decorated with concentric rings, while those
1 Munro, Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings, p. 112, fig. 76.
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