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Description: | Incomplete, cast copper alloy Late Bronze Age socketed axe of South Eastern class A. A good example of its type in good condition but with a broken socket mouth, damage that almost certainly occured in antiquity. The axe is wedge-shaped in profile and subrectangular in plan. The mouth of the axe is sub-circular and had an external width of approx 47mm before loss of the side of the socket mouth and is 41.4 mm high. The axe has a double mouth moulding. The body of the axe is rectangular with straight sides that expand into the lower blade and cutting edge. Casting seams are clearly visible on both sides of the axe, and on the loop. The loop is semi-circular with an oval perforation. It extends from the lower moulding for 21.2 mm and is 7.1 mm wide. The internal dimensions of the socket mouth are 39 mm wide (approx width) by 31.75 mm high. The socket is 72.6 mm deep with casting seams visible upon the side walls of the internal surface (at 90 degrees to those upon the external surface) There are copper corrosion products (inactive) in the bottom of the socket. The extremely flared cutting edge is fairly sharp and has clear traces of resharpening visible. Most of the original surface of the axe survives, but with a patch of copper corrosion products (inactive) on one side of the body. There is an interesting random network of shallow semi-circular incised marks on one side of the axe 2/3rds along the body. It is not clear how these marks were made. The dark chocolate brown patination is, despite appearances to the contrary, quite thin. The axe is 100.1 mm long, 30.3 mm wide at the mid-point of the body, and 53.3 mm wide from tip to tip across the the cutting edge. It weighs 240g. This axehead was found in the topsoil in close association with another South Eastern class A socketed axehead (ESS-BAA3B2) a fragment of bronze plate ingot (ESS-BABFD1) and two body sherds of contemporary flint tempered ware (ESS-BAC322) The presence of sherds of contemporary pottery in close association may suggest that this small hoard of metal work was concealed within in a pottery container.
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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