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Description: | Middle Bronze Age cast copper alloy palstave (axehead) with the remains of one side loop.The palstave is highly corroded although some of the surface still remains in the flange on both sides as well where the stop meets the blade on one side. The septum is 6mm thick at the butt, and 7.7mm thick at the widest point, 16.8mm wide before the stop and 57.2mm long. The flanges are mostly complete apart from a few large nicks and corrosion and finish just before the butt and end at the stop. They gradually widen from the butt to the stop, creating a triangular shape in profile with slightly convex sides. The flange is 3.4mm thick and towards the butt the flange is c.15.4mm wide and at the stop is 24.8mm wide. The casting lines have been fettled (tidied). There is a loop on one side although only the stubs of it now remain with the remainder lost to old breaks.The blade is rectangular in section with curved sides that widen gradually towards the blade before curving out at the blade tips to meet the convex curve of the blade edge. The blade thins sharply from the stop for a short distance then the remainder thins evenly to the edge. There appears to be an edge bevel although the corrosion mostly obscures it. There are no clear ribs or indents by the stop on the faces of blade although on the more complete face it appears to be slightly concave between the upper and lower edges just by the stop. This smooths out gradually into the rest of the blade rather than being a true indent. The edge is 39.2mm long. The palstave is 129.4mm long in total and weighs 258gThe side loop but lack of any ribs or clear indent suggest it maybe middle Bronze Age and probably of the Pennard or Taunton periods, c.1400-1200 BC. It is similar to two examples in Moore and Rowlands (1972, 54) numbers 26 and 27, both of which come from Wiltshire, from Wylye and near Salisbury respectively.
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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