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Description: | IronPossible Socketed Axe, incomplete, as suggested by the finder. Possibly Cast Iron axe head with a flared blade with crescentic cutting edge, of possibly angular form - though flaking of corrosion will have exaggerated this - and a socket of depth circa 58mm depth from its surviving edge. In profile the object tapers evenly from socket to cutting edge. The socket is internally rounded and tapered to a maximum estimated width of circa 32mm. Its external width is estimated to have been circa 40mm, with the most extensively surviving side circa 7mm thick, though achieving a thickness of 8.3mm at the closest point to the mouth of the putative socket, where a scab of corrosion may include the original surface. Given a loss of surface to corrosion elsewhere, this may indicate a minimum range for the original thickness here. It is markedly thicker than the sockets of comparable iron spears, tools or weapons (of dates ranging from Late Iron Age to Modern) viewed by this reporter. The blade end of the axe narrows most markedly from where the socket gives out. The dimensions: length, width, and socket depth, are comparable to those of an iron socketed axe shown to this reporter and Dr Kevin Leahy in 2011 (FAKL-38D115).The loss of the upper part of the socket here - along with the side loop, and perhaps at a point of strain or weakness related to that feature - must obviously qualify the identification. The salient difference in form between this and FAKL-38D115 is this axe's more markedly crescentic cutting edge. An alternative identification as a pole mounted agricultural tool might be entertained, though for reasons relating to the thickness of metal around the socket, this reporter considers an Early Iron Age date and an identification as socketed axe to remain feasible. Suggested date: Early Iron Age, 800-600 BC.Length: 116.4mm, Width: 55.1mm, Thickness (overall - measured at right angles to width): 33.3mm, Weight: circa 270gms.
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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