> "Experts believe the spike may have been used by the Romans to extract meat from snails." Now I'm no expert, but I wager it was used for anything that needed

> "Experts believe the spike may have been used by the Romans to extract meat from snails." Now I'm no expert, but I wager it was used for anything that needed picked or poked, particularly dirt under fingernails. Just going by modern usage patterns, if it can be used for something, it will be used for that, even if it isn't the intended use of the tool.