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Llanarth Type / Southern English B4 or B5 ribbed socketed axe - mouth fragment (Find 8/3)

Part of a hoard of 39 bronze fragments representing a minimum of 38 artefacts discovered in a field following agricultural drainage work. All of the artefacts were reported as being discovered within an area of 2.4m (8 feet) of each other, of each other and at approximate depths of 20-30cm (8-12 inches).

The patination of the objects is consistent with them having been buried in a peaty peaty deposit, which has been known to result in a brown or black patina (Fontijn 2002,40). The hoard findspot was near small watercourse. A search of the Historic Environment Record (www.archwilio.org.uk) revealed no Bronze Age features of sites in the adjacent fields.

Detailed Description; This is a small mouth fragment of copper-alloy ribbed socketed axe. The axe has a double mouth moulding, the uppermost of which is slighly more flared and emphasised in profile. Two longitudinal ribs descend from the lower mouth moulding, the outermost of which runs along the surviving face edge. The break edges are well eroded and appear within the patinated surface, suggesting that the axe was broken in antiquity. The axe has a brown to orange-brown patina.