Ear spoon or spoon probe (specillum)

Ear spoon or spoon probe (specillum) is held by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Germany). Description supplied by the holding institution: The small ear spoon (specillum) is distinguished by the round, slightly angled little spoon at the end.

This was used for cleaning the ears. To facilitate handling, the shaft of the cosmetic instrument is profiled with notches at the lower base. Several cosmetic or medical instruments probably come from the earliest excavations of the Roman baths at Badenweiler. However, the exact find spot or context was not yet documented at the end of the 18th century. The director of the Grand Ducal Collections of Antiquities and Ethnology in Karlsruhe, Ernst Wagner, noted in his meticulous publication—still regarded today as authoritative—"Fundstätten und Funde aus vorgeschichtlicher, römischer und alamannisch-fränkischer Zeit im Großherzogtum Baden" [Find Sites and Finds from Prehistoric, Roman, and Alamannic-Frankish Times in the Grand Duchy of Baden], that during the initial excavations of the Badenweiler baths, "spoons (…) of bronze" were also discovered.

The collection record gives measurements length: 6.9 cm, width: 0.6 cm, height: 0.3 cm. Published through Europeana; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.