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Description: | Copper alloy blade. Cast blade from a short stabbing rapier or dagger; possibly the former reduced to the latter by sharpening over a prolonged period. Dot Boughton kindly advised upon the identification and dating of the object. The blade has a rounded end tapering to a point with sharp sides. The section is lentoid, and thinned by sharpening which has introduced a waisted form to its mid section. The blade expands towards the hilt, with sloped shoulders and a tang of rectangular section which is torn at a single drilled hole of diameter 4.5mm which appears to have cut across the U-shaped end of the tang. This may be damage from loss of plates forming a handle, or may relate to its repair.The thickness noted at the tang may continue along the blade to about half way along it as a species of mid rib, though there are no other features to show this was a deliberately formed or maintained feature. Fine diagonal striations appear along both sides of the blade; this might be taken as further evidence for sharpening in antiquity, followed by deposition in extremely favourable conditions for the preservation of the surface of the metal. The edges of the blade remain sharp. However, the finder is an enthusiastic cleaner and refurbisher of his artefacts, so some or all of this evidence may be of recent date. Some pale green pitting on the upper part of the blade appears to be of some age, though the smoothing of surfaces around it may not be. The lower part of the blade is slightly up-turned. Suggested date: Late Bronze Age, 1000-800 BC.Length: 150mm, Width (at shoulders): 19.0mm, Thickness (blade): 3.6mm, Thickness (tang): 3.4mm, Weight: 35.19gms.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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