Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Carps tongue type sword fragment. Upper blade fragment of thick bladed sword, whose upper break in antiquity appears to have been immediately above a slightly hooked ricasso notch. The upper break cross section has a pronounced rounded mid-section flanked by shallow, slightly convex angled margins. On the least worn upper face, the curved mid-section (17.0mm wide) is defined on each side by a 1mm wide groove, a particular characteristic of this sword type. This blade fragment is extremely worn: an original surface is only visible on one upper face, while only short lengths of upper blade edges survive. Some 13mm below the hooked ricasso notch is a second ridge (an original feature of the blade rather than the product of differential wearing), giving a definite ridge and grooving to the upper blade profile. Elsewhere, differential erosion of the blade margins gives a uneven and curved appearance to this blade fragment, which was once straight sided, rather than leaf shaped in form. In side view, the lower end of the fragment is bent, indicating that the sword was snapped by force in antiquity. The blade has a light green patination in worn areas, whilst original surfaces are dark green.