File:Bronze Age axe (profile, plan, profile and plan). (FindID 820834).jpg

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Summary

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Bronze Age axe (profile, plan, profile and plan).
Photographer
Birmingham Museums Trust, Angie Bolton, 2017-01-02 14:55:57
Title
Bronze Age axe (profile, plan, profile and plan).
Description
English: A complete Early Bronze Age cast copper-alloy undecorated developed flat axe (c. 2000-1700 BC): This implement is sub-rectangular in plan with an expanded crescent shaped blade. The butt, in plan, is complete with a rounded terminal.

The side view of the axe is a sub pointed oval with both terminals tapering. The long edges on the sides are slightly bevelled, leaving a subtle rectangular central band at the apex and therefore forming a slightly bulging profile.

In cross section the body of the axe has a slight H-shape as the side edges of the axe have been raised by hand hammering to form slight flanges, and therefore forming a curved sloped to the base of the spetum. The depth between the height of the flanges and base of the centre of the spetum is 0.64mm. The flanges appear to have been cast and probably augmented by hammering. There is no decoration present and the casting flanges have been trimmed filled and hammered flat.

On both faces of the axe there is a slight bump / rib / proto-stop ridge, measuring 46.43mm from the apex of the butt. There is a median bevel when the blade starts to taper from the body of the axe and it measure 80.46mm from the apex of the butt to the median bevel. The median bevel is visible on both faces and is angular.

On one face the space between the bump/rib-stop and the median bevel there are slight hammer mark traces forming a subtly mottled surface. The other face has active corrosion and a corrosion product adhered to the surface so any hammer marks are not visible.

The blade tip flares outwards from the body forming a concave hollow. The blade appears to be symmetrical. There is no obvious cutting edge bevel towards the blade edge, although it does tapers giving a slightly blunt edge.

The surface of the axe, with the exception of the corroded areas, has a well-developed, shiny mottled dark green to dark grey patina. When the surface is reflected in a good light there is a hint of a shiny fine grey glittery surface which is likely to be due to leaching of the alloys in the burial environment where the tin element is better preserved.

The axe measures 100.75mm in length, 58.89mm in width, 10.93mm thick and weighs163.1g.

The axehead is best described as coming from the later phases of the Early Bronze Age (EBA III) of metalworking stage IV-V (more likely V) specifically within the developed flat axe tradition which corresponds to Needham's (1996) Period 3 circa 2000 - 1700 CAL.BC.

This axe is very similar to a number of examples specifically from the type: Brandon. These are described by Burgess and Schmidt in Catalogue of the Axes in Northern Britain as: being "notably smaller than other advanced flat axes, usually under 130mm length. They have straight parallel or near parallel sides which curve out suddenly just above the blade to a widely expanded crescentic cutting edge.

Depicted place (County of findspot) Warwickshire
Date between 2000 BC and 1700 BC
Accession number
FindID: 820834
Old ref: WAW-2779F8
Filename: WAW2779F8.jpg
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Source https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/595682
Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/595682/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/820834
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Attribution License version 2.0 (verified 30 November 2020)
Object location52° 15′ 38.52″ N, 1° 54′ 52.09″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

Licensing

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w:en:Creative Commons
attribution
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Attribution: Birmingham Museums Trust
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File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current11:02, 19 December 2018Thumbnail for version as of 11:02, 19 December 20184,639 × 7,087 (8.25 MB) (talk | contribs)Portable Antiquities Scheme, WAW, FindID: 820834, bronze age, page 2619, batch count 2964

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