Cochlearium
Roman spoon
A cochlearium (plural cochlearia) was a small Roman spoon with a long tapering handle.
01History
Cochlearia have been found in a number of Roman sites from the 4th and 5th centuries CE, including the Thetford and Hoxne Hoards.
The word cochlea literally means spiral or snail shell, leading many to conclude that the spoon was designed so that the handle could be used to extract snails or cockles out of the shell.
The Roman terms cochlearium, cochlear, and cochleare denote a liquid measure of a spoonful. A cochlearium was also a place where snails could be bred for eating.
In modern times, the cochlearium is used by boat bearers in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church to transfer incense from the "boat" (navicula in Latin) to the thurible.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Cochlearium”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Hoxne Hoard two spoons.JPG by Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0
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