|
Date: |
|
Description: | Incomplete Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age bronze moustache-like object with one damaged pointed end (but apparantly complete) and one missing pointed end. It measures 58.5x12.3x11.7mm and weighs 24.31g.The object resembles a moustache and consists of one solid pointed drop-shape either side of a central area D-shaped in section (being flat on the underside) and measuring 5.2mm long and 7.8mm wide and thick. This central area has a square shaped perforation on the underside 4.4x3mm and 3.8mm deep. The complete pointed drop is 32mm in length.The pointed drop shapes are decorated with pronounced ridges and deep grooves on the rounded half (fifteen on the complete drop, fourteen on the incomplete). The tapering part of the drop is plain. The underside of the drop shapes is slightly flatter but this does not affect the decoration.These moustache-like objects are thought to date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age, after the discovery of one in the Salisbury Hoard (Stead, 1998, no.117). Three other examples are known besides the twelve recorded on the PAS database. Some of these are single examples, while those that are 'double', like this example, extend downwards rather more than outwards (as this example does). The perforation on the underside of the central area suggests the object was meant to top something that fitted into this gap. Descriptions of other moustache-like objects with similar perforations describe iron corrosion or wood mineralisation around the perforation. Although very similar to wing-shaped chapes, it seems unlikely they had a similar function, as the perforation (and size of the object) is comparably small.Dr JD Hill feels these objects date to the Iron Age rather than the Bronze Age.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
|