File:Roman cosmetic mortar (FindID 145855).jpg

English: A complete late Iron Age or Roman copper-alloy cosmetic mortar. Ralph Jackson (British Museum) has confirmed that this is an example is of his Type J, as it is enamelled with bovid terminals, of which he has recorded some 16 examples. Of the seven complete examples - including one from Lakenheath and one from Icklingham, Suffolk - there are two very close parallels, in terms of cell numbers, enamel colours and their arrangement, one unprovenanced (BM P1990, 7-2, 7), the other thought to have been found in the Colchester region. Other incomplete Suffolk examples of type J mortars are know from Poslingford (see SF-665921) and Hitcham (see SF-9BDED1).

The bow is crescent shaped with a central loop and animal head terminals. It measures 77.35mm in total length, 11.19mm at its widest point, across the centre of the bow and 9.93mm in depth, it is 15.13mm in depth if the central loop is included in the measurement. The longitudinal groove measures 5.30mm in depth, at its deepest central point. The central loop is oval in shape and the underside of the bow within it is moulded with an M-shaped indentation.

The enamelled decoration consists of ninteen triangular cells filled with traces of enamel on either face of the bow. This enamel is now decayed but from the remaining traces it seems that the six cells at either end of the rows were filled with blue enamel there is then two cell with traces of red enamel after one set of blue cells and the remaining central five cells have a light green enamel within them.

The terminals of this mortar depict three dimensional bovine heads. Each head projects down from the terminal of the bow at a c45 degree angle. Each head has a broad square ended nose but one head is larger than the other and has one surviving horn, curving upwards and over the top of the head, the head is presumably a bull, and the other is smaller and has small ears rather than horns, presumably representing a cow. The twinning of male and female heads as terminals fits in with the cosmetic mortars associations with fertility, also demonstrated by their crescent shape.