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Description: | Middle Bronze Age bronze spearhead of side-looped type and of Acton Park metalworking (c. 1600 - 1400BC), of Needham's (1996) Periods 4-5The spearhead is incomplete and heavily corroded, missing the mouth, tip, blade and side loops (with a surviving length of 62.6mm and a weight of 15.0g with an emptied socket). The mouth has been lost and the base is sub-circular (with a diameter of 12.4mm - 14.2mm and with a thickness of up to 2mm). The socket has straight sides which gradually converge (with a surviving depth of 33.5mm). Remnants of the stubs of the side loops are discernible on both sides (beginning 23mm from the surviving mouth and with a length of 9mm). Further along the spearhead the remnants of the blade are discernible (beginning 38mm from the surviving mouth). The spearhead appears to have been of sub-lozenge section at the blade, probably suggesting a midrib. Little survives of the blade, which survives as a flange (with a maximum surviving height of 1.0mm). The spearhead has broken before the tip but above the end of the socket, although there is the suggestion of tapering brown core beneath the bronze, perhaps representing the core from casting. Surprisingly, the core was observed to be magnetic, indicating that it is ferrous, possibly suggesting reuse or repair at a later date (at least 800 years later) or possibly but unlikely as a by-product of the casting process or because of a post-depositional event. Patches of the original surface with a dark green patina survives and there is the suggestion of sharpening striations running parallel to the blade.Although the spearhead is fragmentary, there are enough diagnostic features present to be confident in identify it as of side-looped type. A similar side-looped spearhead was found in the Thames at Mortlake, now in the Museum of London , and had remnants of the wooden shaft surviving. The shaft was radiocarbon dated by Needham et al (1997, DOB 31) to 1680 - 1400BC (with 95% confidence).~ Needham, S. 1996; Chronology and Periodisation in the British Bronze Age, Acta Archaeologica 67, p. 121-140~ Accession number: A11811~ Needham, S., Bronk Ramsey, C., Coombs, D., Cartwright, C., Pettitt, P.; 1997; An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork: The Results of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Programme; Archaeological Journal 154, p. 55-107
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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