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Description: | The palstave appears to have lost about 20mm from the butt in antiquity, but in other respects is in very fine condition, though beginning to lose small patches of its fine patinated surface, especially around the sharp recurved blade. The surviving length is 130mm, probably originally 148mm; the width of the blade is 65mm, of the septum 25mm, and the depth of the flanges is 28mm. The face view has an essentially straight septum and wide blade; the side view a smooth curve from blade to flange. The ledge stop is approximately square in face view and there is a hollow at the base of the septum on each side. There is no ?nick? at the junction of flange and blade, a design feature of several early palstave types, but here the reminisence of the earlier flanged axe design lies rather in the slight extension of the flanges below the stop. On both faces there is a rounded swelling below the stop. This is perhaps a variant of the "shield pattern' seen on so many Welsh palstaves, but it is not defined by a raised moulding.
The piece has been competently cast and the casting seams have been ground down, but a slight misalignment of the two valves of the mould has meant that a small area on the side has not received the fine polish that is evident on the rest of the surface. This accident demonstrates the effort that had been made to create the fine dark surface and raises the question of the extent to which particular colour and surface effects might be deliberate. There is evidence of neat horizontal hammering underlying the polished surface on the blade facet. The hammer or punch used was rectangular, 5 x 2mm. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | -1500
-1150 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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