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Description: | 2008 T86 Bronze Age HoardDescription1. Bronze sword hilt fragment. Length 61.5 millimetres; width 22.4 millimetres; weight 35 grams. The sides curve gently outwards, with a low flange along the edges; inside at the top (the end distant from the blade end of the weapon) there is a single circular rivet hole. The fragment ends at the start of the shoulder where there is a central midrib running parallel to the sides. Hilts like this belong to the so-called Carps' Tongue sword (Burgess & Colquhoun 1988, 108-11, pls 98-100 nos 669-95).2. Bronze sword blade fragment. Length 42.1 millimetres; width 37 millimetres; weight 49 grams. The sides are straight and parallel with an oval midrib. Both ends terminate in the neat fracture at right angles to the blade edge so typical of late Bronze Age scrap hoards. Corrosion has affected the surface and blurred the profile of the blade; not enough survives to allow assignation to sword type.3. Bronze sword blade fragment. Length 23.1 millimetres; width 38.6 millimetres; weight 19 grams. The midrib is oval, and defined by a single straight groove on both sides. The straight edges of the blade are parallel. At one end of the fragment, the fracture cuts the blade at right angles, at the other obliquely. A blade like this came from a Carp's Tongue sword: the groove flanking both sides of the midrib is diagnostic (op. cit., 108).4. Bronze sickle blade fragment from the end of the blade. Length 44.5 millimetres; width 35.9 millimetres; weight 38 grams. In section the blade is lentoid; the slightly asymmetrical outline of the blade lends weigh to the identification (Fox 1939 for examples). The fragment ends in a neat fracture that runs across the blade at a right angle.5. Fragment of a bun-shaped copper alloy ingot. Width 34 millimetres; depth (from upper surface to lower) 18.7 millimetres; weight 72 grams. The fragment has part of the original outer edge, with a flat surface and curved profile. Intact bun-shaped copper ingots are seldom found in late Bronze Age hoards but fragments (as here) are far more common.6. Amorphous copper-alloy lump. Length 41.6 millimetres; width 32.1 millimetres; weight 57 grams. One cannot assign this lump to the hoard postulated here with certainty. It has the appearance of a pool of metal that has solidified and retained its original shape. One surface is flat and it is possible that the find represents a casting jet, that is to say the solidified remains of a funnel of molten metal that introduced the melt to a mould. Inasmuch as it has a connection with metalworking, a link with the Bronze Age metalwork is a distinct possibility.7. Bronze tanged tool. Length 32.5 millimetres; width 31.6 millimetres; weight 9 grams. This item was found on a different occasion to the other finds. It consists of a short tang that opens out into a short fan-shaped blade. Precise parallels among the corpus of Bronze Age metalwork are not forthcoming but it is conceivable that the piece is a modified (reworked) bifid razor.8. Bronze gouge. Length 65.0 millimetres; width 13.0 millimetres; weight 33 grams. The sides are straight and parallel whilst the body is tubular and leads down to the semi-circular mouth of the gouge.DiscussionThe Carp's Tongue sword fragments anchor the find securely in the Ewart Park phase of the late Bronze Age, dated c.1020-800 BC on the basis of radiocarbon dates for wood in direct association with metalwork of the phase (Needham et al. 1998, 93, 98). The finds consist of fragmentary bronze artefacts, as well as a copper ingot fragments with a total weight of 279 grams. The association of ingot material with scrap metalwork destined for recycling lends the hoard a distinctly industrial character. Many hoards of this kind have been reported from Essex, East Anglia and the Home Counties; their links with industrial production have led to them being described as founders' hoards. It is unusual to have a hoard of this kind without the socketed axes ubiquitous in the period when it was buried.ConclusionThis hoard is a collection of prehistoric metalwork and should be considered to be treasure, under the Treasure Order (2002) being a base-metal prehistoric find containing two or more metal objects.Dr Paul R. Sealey 6th February 2008 Assistant Curator of Archaeology Colchester Museums 01206-282932 paul.sealey@colchester.gov.ukBen Roberts 10th March 2008 Curator of European Bronze Age British Museum Great Russell Street London WC1B 3DGBibliographyBurgess, C.B. and Colquhoun, I.A., 1988. The Swords of Britain (Prähistorische Bronzefunde 4.5) (Munich)Fox, C.F., 1939. 'The socketed bronze sickles of the British Isles', Proc. Prehist. Soc. 5, 222-48Needham, S.P., 1980. 'The bronzes', in D. Longley, Runnymede Bridge 1976: Excavations on the Site of a Late Bronze Age Settlement (Research Volume of the Surrey Archaeological Society 6) (Guildford), 13-27Needham, S.P., 1990. The Petters Late Bronze Age Metalwork: An Analytical Study of Thames Valley Metalworking in its Settlement Context (British Museum Occasional Paper 70) (London)Needham, S.P., Bronk Ramsay, C., Coombs, D.G., Cartwright, C. and Pettitt, P., 1998. 'An independent chronology for British Bronze Age metalwork: the results of the Oxford radiocarbon accelerator programme', Archaeol. J. 154 for 1997, 55-107
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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