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Description: | A copper alloy dirk or rapier blade dating from the Bronze Age. The blade is broken into three pieces, but the lack of patination on the breaks suggests this occurred post deposition. The blade is almost complete, with just parts of the edge of the hilt missing. The blade has straight edges which taper to the point. It is lentoid in section with a thickened mid rib which occupies the middle third of the width of the blade. The object is 345mm long (all three pieces together). The blade appears to have been almost whole and straight when deposited as the bending and breaking has damaged the patina and the breaks are not patinated. At the hilt, the blade expands in width and then narrows again, making a lozenge shaped area at the top of the blade. The side facets flare out to the widest point then stop. There is a semi circular notch in each side at the top of the lozenge area which appear to be complete and original, not the result of later damage. Above these, is a wide butt, complete on one side which is rounded, but with the other side and the end being patinated breaks.The shape of the hilt and blade suggests that the sword dates from the Penard phase of metalworking; circa 1300 BC - 1140 BC. This tradition of metalworking is named after Penard in Glamorgan and sees the introduction of notched-butt dirks and rapiers. A notched-butt Lisburn dirk illustrated on page 80 in the Bronze Age Chapter of the Handbook of British Archaeology, by Ben Roberts, has many similarities to this example. See also the Group IV rapier number 190 on page 132 of the British Museum Occasional Paper number 102 by Rohl and Needham. Compare also WILT-F28F12, WMID-A934D4, HAMP-D40847, BUC-680280 and LANCUM-81DDE1.This object has not been declared as Treasure because it appears to have broken into three pieces at some point after deposition. As a single base metal prehistoric object at the point of deposition it does not meet the criteria for Treasure under the 1996 Act.
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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