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Description: | Small looped copper alloy palstave with a plain blade, curved cutting edge and pronounced square stop-ridge. This example was found using a metal detector.The palstave is complete, although it has been eroded around the edges, and the full extent of the cutting edge has worn away. Patches of the original surface remain, although the majority of this appears to have flaked away, leaving a more rough-textured surface c. 1mm below. The patina is largely greenish in colour, although the remaining sections of original surface have a more brownish tinge. The current appearance of the patina differs with the initial photographs of the find taken at the time of discovery, and this is probably connected to the apparent application of a waxy substance to the surface of the palstave. Where the rough-textured surface has also been lost, around the cutting edge, the loop and the butt, the inner material of the palstave is an orange-brown colour. It appears that it has been subject to some surface abrasion, in places, revealing the bronze colour beneath. The palstave was cast-in-one, as evidenced by a line visible around the sides, showing the junction of the two moulds. The sides run roughly parallel until the blade begins to flare out roughly two thirds of the way along from the butt, although the stop-ridge causes a slight protrusion on either side (excluding the loop).Although it is also reminiscent of the Guilsfield type, the palstave appears to belong to the Wilburton phase of metalworking, also known as Needham's period 6 (1150-950 BC), due to the way in which the flanges run into the septum before the butt. Savory notes that "At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the north Wales industry seems to have specialised in neatly cast, plain-bladed implements with a straight or curving stop-ridge...". This palstave forms part of this tradition.Similar (albeit larger) examples were found as part of the Guilsfield hoard (Savory, 1980, fig 32, no 268.2), and also more recently at Pen yr Ole Wen, Gwynedd, in 2005 (GAT PRN 24018;PAS ID GAT-C5BC97)
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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