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Ribbed Socketed Axe - body and side fragment (Find No.8/6)

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 body and side fragment of a copper-alloy ribbed socketed axe, possibly with one ribbed decoration. It is difficult to comment on some features of the axe owing to its incompleteness, but the sides appear to have once been straight and near-parallel. The fragment appears to have the remains of a single longitudinal rib across its face, although this is poorly defined. The face of the axe is bowed inwards, suggesting that the axe was struck with a blunt-ended tool in antiquity. The break egdes are soil covered and well eroded, suggesting that the axe was broken in antiquity.

The axe fragment has a brown patina.