Plane Old Archaeology In the Summer of 2000, while excavating for the BP Teeside-Saltend Etyhlene pipeline project near Goodmanham on the Yorkshire Wolds, it was discovered that under part of the proposed site lay a 1st to 5th century AD Roman-British village. While working near a simple rectangular timber building, along the upper fill of a ditch which defined one side of the enclosure, an unusual discovery was made - an early Roman woodworking plane made of ivory and iron. Historically speaking, the Goodmanham Plane was of a similar style and dimensions as that of other early Roman planes, such as those found at Pompeii. This consisted of a stock which had two hand grips consisting of rectangular slots - one forward and one at the rear - which had been securely riveted to an iron sole (turned up at both ends) by three dome-headed iron rivets. The plane also had its iron cutting blade set snugly in the stock. Size-wise, the plane measured 330mm long by 60mm wide and is 85mm high (approximately 13-1/4" by 2-3/8" by 3-3/8"). The pitch, or bed angle, of the plane is set at 65 degrees and the cutting iron is 35mm wide (1-5/16").
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