I was rooting around in my vegetable patch with the intention of digging up some nice new potatoes for lunch when <clang> my fork hit something.  I dug into the dirt and pulled out this object. It was covered in mud which I have since washed off, but does anyone know what it is ? Feels and looks like brass but is warm to the touch. It has lots of symbols carved into it, anyone make any sense of it ?

I was incredibly lucky to be online at the right time and managed to buy this beautiful raygun designed by Greg Broadmore and sculpted/customised by Dave Tremont at Weta. If you haven’t heard about these marvels of mechanical ingenuity, I implore you to visit http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?catid=4