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Description: | Copper alloy spear. Socketed and basal side looped spearhead. Cast leaf shaped spearhead with a round mouthed socket of length 47.5mm and a longitudinal mid rib on either side beginning 9mm from the slightly flared socket mouth and continuing with increasing prominence along the round section socket and ogival section blade to the extant end of the latter; this rib stands proud of adjacent surfaces to a height of 0.4mm. The remaining length of the blade is 41mm, with the probable loss of a further c.40mm. A pair of oval side loops are positioned 21.7mm from the socket mouth with a length of 12mm and protruding c.4mm from its wall. These lie on mould lines appearing on either side of the socket, and disappearing at the beginning of the cutting edge of the blade. The small remaining part of the cutting edge, at its return to meet the socket, remains sharp with a bevelled zone of width 1mm probably arising from the last sharpening of its edge. The tip of the blade was probably lost in antiquity, with a frayed cutting edge perhaps the result of post-depositional damage. Viewed in profile, the blade is bent above the site of a chip on the mid rib, which may therefore have spalled away at the time of an impact, again perhaps in antiquity. There are therefore two sites of damage which may have been incurred through the use of the spear. With the exception of spots of corrosion on the socket mouth and at the chip, the metal is in good condition throughout, which may argue its relatively recent disturbance from a sealed and sympathetic burial context.The form of the spearhead may suggest a mid-to-late Bronze Age date; a group of four comparable spearheads from Waddingham, Scawby and Messingham, North Lincolnshire, currently displayed at the North Lincolnshire Museum, are there ascribed to the Middle Bronze Age (1600-1000 BC), while others from northern Lincolnshire previously reported on the Portable Antiquities website are dated to the Middle Bronze Age, 1500-1150 BC. Suggested date: Middle Bronze Age, 1500-1150 BC.Length: 89.5mm, Width: 26.9mm, Internal Diameter (socket mouth): 15.5mm, Thickness (at socket mouth): 1.4mm, Thickness (at start of blade): 10.5mm, Depth of socket: 74mm, Weight: 28.25gms.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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