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Description: | A group of copper alloy items suggesting the work of a Bronze Age founder. The finds consist of four pieces of Bronze 'Cake', and the broken fragment of what appears to be (but is not quite certainly) a sword. (a) Portion of a bronze two-edged metal bar, snapped at either end, bent to form an arc of about 80 degrees of curvature. The bar, which has a convex profile on both of its flat faces, is 7mm thick in the central axis, and tapers in breadth from 27mm to 24mm over its existing (and curved) length of 53mm. Towards the outer edges of the blades are slight concave channels running parallel to the edge. In most respects, this object resembles part of the blade of a Late Bronze Age sword, curved over sharply having been bent and broken for ritual or industrial purposes. However, nota: (i) the edges do not appear to have been sharpened, (ii) the metal is unusually heavy, suggesting a higher than usual lead content, and (iii) despite the considerable curve of the blade owing to bending, there are no marks of stress or other hammer-marks on either face. These leave slight difficulty in the identification. It might just possibly be the part of the handle of a later vessel, eg Iron Age or Roman in date, or even possibly mediaeval. The blackish-brown patination, with small areas of vivid green corrosion products near the edges, do suggest an ancient metal composition rather than a recent one. (b) Portion of a large puddled plano-convex circular bronze cake, typical of Bronze Age metalworking. This is a broken edge portion 90mm in length, 63mm from edge towards the centre of the cake, at which inner point it reaches a thickness of 30mm. Somne brown staining within does not respond to magnetic testing and so is probably not ferrous. The outer surface is irregular with pockets or bubble holes. 30cm when complete. Weight 285.33g. (c) A second portion of a circular plano-convex puddled 'cake' of bronze typical of Bronze Age metalworking. This piece, also an edge-fragment, is smaller than b, though similar in appearance with bubble-holes in the surface and brownish residues adhering. Like the other it is an edge-fragment, 68mm in length, 44mm from circumference towards cake centre, and 20mm thick, weight 163.71g. (d) A small irregularly-shaped portion of copper alloy derived from molten working. Weight 40,98g. Max dimensions 35mm, 25mm, 12mm. (e) A small irregularly-shaped portion of copper alloy derived from molten working. weight 31.76g. Max dimensions 39mm, 21mm, 11mm. Despite the slight uncertainty about the bent sword fragment, the evidence of the 'cake' is strongly in favour of all of this group being a prehistoric founder's hoard.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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