|
Date: |
|
Description: | A complete cast copper-alloy transitional Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age socketed axehead (c. 900-700 BC). The axehead has a facetted body, with one wider face which widens towards the blade and a flanking narrow facet to either side. The socket mouth is round with a square internal socket and there seem to be four casting jets which are visible on the mouth, but flattened. A small collar or moulded ridge is visible directly below the socket mouth and the socket mouth itself is quite rounded on the external surface. The casting lines on either side edge have been trimmed and flattened, but not smoothed. The loop is D-shaped in plan and bears the flattened casting line on its external edge. The blade end widens from the axehead body and flares slightly at the lower blade. The colour of the metal is overall grey-green, which indicates a higher tin content; areas towards the blade end exhibit a high bronze-coloured patina. There is a small hole on one face near the blade which may be due to a casting bubble; it seems to perforate through the face and into the socket. It measures an overall 108.4 mm long, 54.86 mm maximum width at blade, 35.64 maximum outer width at socket mouth; the internal diameter of the socket is 26.9 mm and the depth of the socket is approximately 88 mm. The axehead weighs 209 grams.Because of the socket orientation within the axehead, which is back to front, this example may be a smaller derivative of Sompting type axes. According to Bronze Age specialist Dot Boughton, the facets indicate that this axehead should be dated to the Late Bronze Age rather than the Early Iron Age, which more typically has ribs instead of facets (pers. comm. 6/2012).
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
Axehead
A copper alloy socketed axehead…
-
AXEHEAD
A copper alloy socketed axehead…
-
AXEHEAD
An incomplete Bronze Age copper…
-
AXEHEAD
A complete cast copper alloy…
-
-
AXEHEAD
A cast bronze socketed axehead,…
-
AXEHEAD
An almost complete cast copper…
-
-
-
|