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Description: | 1. Complete, cast copper alloy Late Bronze Age socketed axe. The axe is wedge-shaped in profile and subrectangular in plan. The mouth of the axe is subsquare. There is a rounded moulded collar running around the mouth, which is now badly worn and chipped. Beneath the moulding is a wide, shallow groove or indent, beneath which is a further raised moulded band that runs around the axe. The body of the axe is rectangular with gently flaring sides that expand into the lower blade and cutting edge. The cutting edge is missing, and the exposed edge worn and pitted. The blade tips are also worn down. Casting seams are clearly visible to both sides of the axe, and partially on the loop where the original surface survives. The loop is semicircular with an oval perforation. It extends from the lower moulding for 23.86mm and is 11.5mm wide.
Most of the original surface of the axe survives with an even mid-green patina. Exposed abraded or pitted surfaces are light green. There is some bright green corrosion product at the mouth edge. The axe is undecorated. Chipped edges are worn, suggesting damage occurred in antiquity.
The axe is a south-eastern type, Variant Beddlestead Green (Schmidt & Burgess 1981, The Axes of Scotland and Northern England page 213, plate 85 number 1271). South-eastern axes are diagnostic of the Ewart Park phase of the late Bronze Age c.1020-800 BC (Needham et al. 1998, Archaeological Journal, 154, pages 93-8).
2. Incomplete Late Bronze Age copper ingot. This fragment of ingot is subrectangular in plan, with one distinctly curved edge, and is subrectangular in section. When complete the ingot would have been 'bun-shaped', that is semicircular in section, having a domed bottom and flat top. Enough of the curved edge survives to indicate that the ingot would have had a diameter in the region of 90mm. The ingot now measures 72.56mm long, 61.34mm wide, 21.1mm thick and weighs 315g. The surfaces of the ingot are abraded and pitted. It is mostly mid-brown in colour with significant patches of bright green which indicate its high copper content. Copper ingot fragments are common in hoards of the Ewart Park phase of the late Bronze Age c.1020-800 BC
Both items of the hoard were 2.4 metres apart at a depth of 25-30 centimetres.
Dimensions: 1.The socketed axe is 98.96mm long. The mouth has an external width of 40.44mm and is 42.86mm high. The corresponding internal dimensions are 27.94mm by 30.26mm. The axe is 30.5mm wide at the mid-point of the body, and 43.92mm wide from tip to tip across the remains of the cutting edge. It weighs 255g
2. The ingot measures 72.56mm long, 61.34mm wide, 21.1mm thick and weighs 315g. | 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: | -1020
-800 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Caroline McDonald | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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